i 



tt 




'^C'-^^^y c/t^>(^-^^ 



PROCEEDINGS 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 



«4 gttndr^dth Jmnitiiirsarg 



INCORPORATION 



TOWN OF MASON, N. H., 

AUGUST »G, 1808. 



PREPARED FOR PUBLICATION, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE 
COBIMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS, 

By JOHN B. HILL. 




BOSTON: 
KtiLIOTT, THOMIES &c TALBOT. 

1870. 









Press of RocKWBLl & CiipncHiLL, 

122 Wnstiinptun Street, Boston. 



^4 57 



PKELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS. 



3>S^C 



At the annual Town Meeting, March 10, 1868, pursuant to an 
article in the warrant, a vote was passed, to celebrate the one hun- 
dredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town, which would 
occur on August 26, 1868, and to authorize the selectmen of the 
3'ear, Charles B. Prescott, Win. G. Lakin, and Thomas B. Tarbell, 
to take measures necessary and proper to carry the same into 
effect, who subsequently appointed the following-named gentlemen 
a committee for that purpose : Thomas H. Marshall, Jonathan 
Russell, 2d, Abram Wright, Luther L. Barrett, Elisha B. Barrett, 
Charles P. Eichardson, John S. Spalding, Samuel E. Adams, and 
Alden B. Smith. 

The town also voted that the expenses of the celebration should 
be paid out of the town treasury ; but doubts having been expressed 
as to the legal right of the town to raise money by taxation, for 
such purposes, the committee, and other citizens uniting with 
them, by private subscription, raised a sum sufficient to meet all 
such charges. The committee agreed with George W. Scripture 
to provide a dinner for the company, and appointed Thomas B. 
Tarbell, Charles B. Prescott, Joseph B. Wilson, Edwin B. Hos- 
mer, Luke Newell, George Whitaker, Abram Wright, John P. 
Wright, John Alinson, Veron Eatou, and Samuel H. Wheeler, a 
committee to select a place and prepare a stand for the speaking 



4 PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS. 

and seats for the audience. The place selected ■vvas in a beautiful 
forest, a part of the homestead farm of the Rev. Ebenezer Hill, — 
a spot peculiarly well fitted for such a use, situate a short dis- 
tance south of the site of the old meeting-house, on which suitable 
and ample preparations were made for the purposes above indi- 
cated. A letter of invitation was issued by the Committee of 
Arrangements, copied as follows : — 

"CENTENNIAL OF MASON. 

"The undersigned, a committee appointed in pursuance of a 
vote of the Town of 'Mason to celebrate the one hundredth anni- 
versary of the Incorporation of the Town, cordiall}' invite all her 
absent sons and daughters to come home and unite in a glad re- 
union on the 26th day of August next. 

Thomas H. Marshall, 
Jonathan Russell, 2d, 
Abram "Wright, 
Luther L. Barrett, 
Elisha B. Barrett, 
Charles P. Richardson, 
John S. Spalding, 
Samuel E. Adams, 
Alden B. Smith. 
"Mason, July 1, 1868." 

This letter was, by the citizens, sent out to their relatives and 
friends in neighboring and distant towns and States. Notice of 
the time, place, and occasion of the celebration was published in 
the public papers of the vicinity. 

The day opened auspiciously. It was one of those beautiful 
autumnal mornings, which indicate that the oppressive heat of 
summer is gone, and which promise a day of truly enjoyable 
weather. This promise was amply fulfilled. The day was 
ushered in with ringing of bells and peals of cannon ; and at an 
early hour, from all quarters, crowds assembled at the place of 
meeting. Friendly and hearty greetings were passed between many 



PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS. 6 

who had been long parted by distance, and were now permitted to 
meet and take each other by the hand. 

The following programme, issued by the committee of arrange- 
ments, and widely distributed, served as an order of proceedings 
of the day : — 



PB#©BAMMB« 



I?»R,OCESSIOIV FOIS]>IEr> AJF lO A. Ml. 



'JjAsx 



JfUSIC ST THU 3S.^1JV2). 
TRUTHS. 



SOSrO OF WEIiCOME. 



Glad are our hearts to-rlay, 

Anil proudly lieave our breasts, 

While we, our greeting lay 

Kxtend our honored guests ; 

Let every tongue join tlie glad strain, 

Oh ! welcome, welcome home again. 

Welcome, yes, welcome home again. 

From distant lands they come. 
Homes sr.ittered far and wide, 
And friends of" atdd-lang-syue," 
Here clustering side by side, 
With cordial grasp extend the hand; 
United now our household band. 
Welcome, oh I welcome home again. 



We love our native town, 

We own her fostering care. 

And here, with grateful pride, 

Her natal honors share ; 

Let every voice join the glad strain, 

Till the broad welkin rings again, 

With our Centennial Jubilee, 

May generations hence 

Their lineage proudly tell. 

And boast that no disgrace 

E'er J/V^^•(l»^s■ fame befell ; 

Oh I be her future, as her past. 

With honor bright, and we at last 

In heaven sing glad welcome home. 

Mrs. Louisa J. Kimball. 



MUSIC, 
ORATIOJ^, 



A7iDSE,SS OF }rJEI,COJrE. 

By the Band. 

Son. John B. Sill. 



SOA^G OF JTrBII.EE. 



Come, children of our dear old town, 

Where'er your lot may be. 
Come join us in our gladsome song, 

Our song of jubilee. 
Upon her ivied throne of years, 

With eye still bright and clear, 
Our Motlier sits in honor of 

Her hundredth natal year. 

Chorus : 
Oh I happy hearts, now gathered here, 

.Join in our chorus loud and clear, [true, 
Sing of the virtues of our JFother, fond and 

Sing of her hills and vales, her sons and 
daughters too. 
Call them home from far and near. 

Bid them banish doubt and fear; 
Let all with true JIasonic hearts to-day 

Join in our song of .Jubilee. 

POEM, 

MUSIC, 

CHRONICLES, 



Come, gather round the circle close. 

And feel the warmth that glows 
Within that heart whose life has beat 

A century to its close; 
A life of trial, toil, and strife. 

But yet without a stain 
To check our honest pride to-day, 

Or cause our Mother shame. Cho. 

Then ye whose locks are seared with age, 

And ye whose pulses beat 
W^ith ail the fiery life of youth. 

Your love of home repeat ; 
Shout loud your cliorus to the skies, 

And press the altars near. 
And celebrate this glorious day 

Of Centenary Year. Cho. 

li. L. Cumnoclc, jr. 



Jiei'. T^ . R. Sodgman. 

By the Band. 

. Charles E. Sill. 



iliigr it ii© i'gliil f .1, 

IN THE TENT. 

IIV1»IX OF OKA-TITTJDE. 



O Thou, wliose all-directing hand 
Hath guided lionic this wandering band, 
We own Tliy power, Tliy love adore, 
While future blessings we innilore. 

Thy love divine, with cheering ray, 
Illumed our Father's <larkened way, 
Though toils and dangers pressed them 

round, 
A sure support in Thee they found. 

And children's children, grateful now, 
Before Thy throne with reverence bow, 
With one accord their hearts to raise, 
In loudest songs of grateful praise. 



From homes with peace and plenty blessed. 
Our willinjr feet have hither pressed, 
Witli greeting kind and cheerful lay, 
To crown our glad Centennial day. 

No songs raise we to " gods unknown," 
Oia- Cod, our Fdther's God, we own I 
Oh, be His love the strength and stay 
Of all who've gathered here to-day. 

And when life's scenes for us have passed. 
When we have looked on e.arth our last, 
Jlay each receive the welcome, " Come," 
Faithful of God, well done 1 come home. 
Miss Ahby 11. Allen. 



TOASTS clJVi) Si^EECHES. 



S( )NG, 



hy Mrs. Field. 



" I cannot sing the old Songs." 
rOLUjYTEEH TOASTS AjYS) SS^EECJSTES. 



rAKTIJVO HYMX. 



Now as evening shadows gather. 

And we're called upon to part, 
May the warm hand-clasp be taken, 

Of the love heart bears to heart; 
Kindly wishes, thought or spoken, 

Drop as blessings or as balm. 
And the mem'ry of this season 

E'er be hallowed with a charm. 

'Midst the joys of sweet reunion, 

]\Icm'ry drops the bitter tear. 
While recalling the loved faces 

Which no more can greet us here, — 
Fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters. 

Townsmen, held in high esteem. 
Sowers, reapers, and sheaf-binders. 

Long since passed adown life's stream. 

But, though Death full oft has garnered 
Choicest fruit we had to give. 

Sterling truth, in ripened manhood 
Also shows us how to live. 



MUSIC, 



He.ads remembered 'erst as cradled. 
Now with silvery locks arc crowned. 

And Life's purpose, then unwritten, 
Clear is set each brow around. 

For all character, in forming. 

Leaves its impress, good or ill, 
And men's faces are the reflex 

Of the tirm or pliant will. 
May this thought each then bear with him. 

By its frnltaf/e, is life known, 
And in heaven will joy be measured 

By the harvest of truth sown. 

May God's word be our foundation, 

Holy life the structures reared, 
And tlirough Christ, our blest K'edeemer, 

Heavenly titles for each cleared. 
Then, on earth, though ne'er united, 

We shall meet at last above, 
Hearts and voices joined in tribute 

To the power of Jesus' love. 

3Trs. IT. M. V. Wrifjlit. 
By the Band. 




8 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



The procession was formed at 10 o'clock, under the direction of 
James L. Chamberlain, Esq., Chief Marshal, assisted by John S. 
Spalding, Elisha B. Barrett, Thomas E. Marshall, Thomas B. Tar- 
bell, and Marshall Kimball, Assistant Marshals, and under the 
lead of the Brookline Brass Band, directed by Mr. Alonzo Bond, 
of Boston, proceeded to the stand for speaking, where the Chief 
Marshal introduced the President of the day, the Hon. Thomas H. 
Marshall, who, with several Vice-Presidents, Jonathan Russell, 2d, 
Joseph B. Wilson, Franklin Merriam, Charles Scripture, and Sam- 
uel Smith, Avere conducted to seats. 

Reporters were present, and seats assigned to them, from the 
Boston Daily Journal, and the Boston Daily Advertiser, in which 
papers, on the next morning, full reports of all the proceedings 
appeared, from which reports, somewhat condensed, and with some 
additions, the following account of the doings of the day is pre- 
sented : — 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION, 

AT MASON, N. H. 

Procession — Oration — Ijiterary and Alusioal Xlxcrcises — Dinner In a 
Slaniniotli Tent. 

[REPOKTED FOlt THE BOSTON JOURNAL.] 



The citizens of Mason, N. H., 
yesterday celebi'ated the occurrence 
of the one hundredth annivei'sary of 
the organization of their town in a 
manner appropriate to an occasion 
so significant and intei'esting. The 
large attendance of her sons and 
daughters, coming from every di- 
rection and ahnost from every State 
to which a New Englander might be 
expected to emigrate, and tlie con- 
cert of action and universal hospi- 
tality of those who yet remained at 
home, well attest the enthusiastic 
and, 'perhaps not less, the tender 
feelings which the event awakened 
In all hearts. 



THE SITUATION OF THE TOWN. 

The town of Mason is situated 
upon the southern border of New 
Hampshire, at the present terminus 
of the Pcterboro' and Shirley Hail- 
road, which branches from the Fitch- 
burg at Groton Junction. In terri- 
tory it is about six miles square, and 
is divided substantially into two 
communities or settlements, known 
as the Centre and the Village. Ma- 
son Villftge is the more populous of 
the two, and is a place of consider- 
able manufacturing prosperity, pos- 
sessing two cotton mills of about 
8,000 spindles, a furniture manufac- 
tory, of which the machinery is car- 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



ried by water power, and a grist mill. 
The Souhegan River, wMcIi passes 
through this section of the town, 
could, it is said, supply power for 
100,000 spindles, having a fall of 
sixty feet within a distance of forty 
rods and eighty feet within a quarter 
of a mile. The approach to the 
Village by railroad is marked by 
several peculiar and interesting 
features. To avoid a direct passage 
through an intervening range of 
lofty hills, a curve, which is almost 
or quite a semicircle, is made, 
which, as a citizen expressed it, 
gives the line of road at its terminus 
the "shape of a mackerel hook." 
Sweeping arouud this curve, the 
passenger is aflbrded a charming 
view of an extensive and deeply-in- 
dented valley, through which flows 
the current of the Souhegan River, 
and beyond which stretches an am- 
phitheatre of hills, rising to a lofty 
altitude, through one of those vig- 
orous geologic efibrts for which New 
Hampshire is so justly celebrated. 
To shoot across this valley from 
highland to highland, by railroad, 
required the construction of a bridge 
resting upon the borders of the 
stream, 100 feet in height and 600 
in length, and in rapidly passing 
over it one gets a better idea than 
before of the literal significance of 
the phrase " a bird's-eye view." 
The scenery in every direction is of 
a similar character, lofty hills and 
deep valleys, and over and among 
these lies the connecting road be- 
tween Mason Village and Centre. 
The latter is the place where the 
celebration was held, and is acces- 
sible also from another point on the 
railroad. Its characteristics are 
those usual to an agricultural settle- 
ment in New England. Many well- 



cultivated farms are seen In its pleas- 
ant valleys, and its hillsides are 
spotted with happy homes. The 
sons and daughters of this town are 
now residents in every portion of 
our country, and a majority of the 
States in the Union were represent- 
ed in the gathering which took place 
yesterday. The day was ushered 
in by the ringing of bells and the 
firing of cannon, and was observed 
as a holiday by the citizens, nearly 
all of whom probably flocked to the 
Common at Mason Centre, where 
the procession was to be formed. 
A panorama of the war was opened 
in a tent upon the Common, booths 
were erected, flags thrown to the 
breeze in various localities, and the 
Village presented a lively appear- 
ance. The roads in the vicinity 
were filled with teams from distant 
parts of the town and the surround- 
ing country, and nearly two thou- 
sand people gathered to celebrate 
the happy occasion. 

THE CELEBRATION. 

The conduct of the celebration 
was under the immediate charge of 
the following-named officers of the 
day: Hon. Thomas H. Marshall, 
President; Jonathan Russell, 2d, 
Joseph B. Wilson, Franklin Mer- 
riam, Charles Scripture, Samuel 
Smith, Vice-Presidents; James L. 
Chamberlain, Chief Marshal ; J. S. 
Spalding, Elisha B. Barrett, Thos. 
E. Marshall, Thomas B. Tarbell, 
Marshall Kimball, Assistant Mar- 
shals; James Russell, Toast Mas- 
ter. 

A committee of general and an- 
other of special arrangements had 
been engaged for some time past 
in making the preliminary prepar- 
ations. 



10 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



A procession was formed, at 
the square near the church, about 
ten o'clock, A.M., and, headed by 
the Brookline (N. H.) Brass Band, 
led for the occasion by Mr. Alonzo 
Bond, the well-known Boston mu- 
sician, the march was made to a 
pine-grove about a fourth of a mile 
distant. Here a platform had been 
erected, on which were seated the 
officers of the day, the participants 
in the proceedings, and many ven- 
erable citizens of the town. The 
exercises commenced with the per- 
formance of "Auld Lang Syne " by 
the band, after which the Chief 
Marshal introduced the President 
of the day, wlio briefly welcomed 
the visitors to the old town, and 
congratulated all upon the auspi- 
cious circumstances under which 
they were met. The Divine bless- 
ing was then invoked by Rev. L. 
C. Stevens, of Mason Village, after 
which a select choir of ladies and 
gentlemen sung an original " Song 
of Welcome," tc the tune of Sun- 
derland, — Mrs. Milton Hardy pre- 
siding at the melodeon. Rev. Geo. 
F. Merriam, of Mason Village, then 
pronounced a formal address of 
welcome in eloquent and appropri- 
ate terms. After music by the 
band, the Orator of the Day, Hon. 
John B. Hill, was introduced. 

ORATION OP HON. JOHN B. HILL. 

Mr. Hill (who is one of the vener- 
able citizens of the town, seventy- 
two years of age, and favorably 
known in antiquarian circles as 
the author of the " History of Ma- 
son ") commenced his address with 
the statement that just one hundred 
years ago Obadiah Parker left the 
town of Mason for a journey to 
Portsmouth, being instructed by a 
vote of the citizens to procure in 



their behalf from the Provincial 
Governor, John Wentworth, an act 
of incorporation as a town. The 
circumstances under which the jour- 
ney was made, through the then all- 
surrounding wilderness, and the for- 
malities necessary in the conduct of 
the affair with His Majesty's august 
representative were depicted, and 
the cost of obtaining the franchise, 
as recorded on the town books, was 
stated to be £12 6s. 6d. 3 farthings. 
It had been voted to have the town 
called Sharon, but it was decided 
by the Governor, and agreed to by 
the delegate, to name it Mason, in 
honor of Captain John Mason, the 
original grantee of lands in New 
Hampshire. The orator then ex- 
hibited aud read the document which 
Parker brought back, which is in a 
good state of preservation, and bears 
the date of August 26, 1768. The 
document, after describing the 
bounds of the town, goes on further 
to say, " always reserving to our 
heirs and successors all the white- 
pine trees which are or shall be 
found gi'owing or being on the said 
land, fit for the use of our Royal 
Navy." * The orator called attention 
of the audience to the majestic pines 
in the grove around them, as proof 
that the pines were still there, and 
that King George had never called 
for them. He then reverted to the 
history of the town within his own 
early recollection, and gave a bio- 
graphical sketch of two of its cente- 
narians, — Jonathan Foster, who 
died at the age of one hundred years, 

* It was provided that the trees fit for 
the Royal Nary should be marked by the 
King's surveyor with the broad arrow ; any 
one cutting a tree so marked was subject to 
a heavy penalty, but until so marked any 
tree might be felled by the owner of the 
land without penalty. — J. B. H. 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



11 



March 31, 1821, and Oliver Elliot, 
who died at the age of one hundred 
and two years and six months. He 
also alluded to the ancient ministers 
of the town— Rev. Jonathan Searle 
and Ebenezer Hill— the latter being 
his own immediate ancestor, being 
the owner of the beautiful grove in 
which the celebration was held. A 
comparison was instituted between 
the status of the town in the year 
1777 and the year 1868, the polls 
being 98 against 348 ; the horses 48 
against 189 ; the taxation $336 
against $12,607.78, and the popula- 
tion 501 against 2,000. The early 
manufactures of the town were al- 
luded to, and the isolation of the 
people described. The only sources 
of news in those days were the 
occasional journeys of the farmers, 
with an ox team to Boston, and the 
news there being carefully treasured 
in memory, was detailed on their 
return to eager listeners in front of 
the church, between the forenoon 
and afternoon services on Sunday. 
The first newspaper published in 
the State was in 1757, and now, said 
the speaker, we have them crowd- 
ing upon each other day after day, 
together with a surfeit of periodi- 
cals. He thought some of the town's 
people would now be desperately 
pushed for news if going to church 
on Sunday were the source on which 
they depended. In further contrast 
of old times with the present, he said 
that witches, ghosts and sorcerers 
have disappeared along with queues, 
knee-breeches and shoe-buckles, 
and now we have Mormonism, Mes- 
merism, Spiritualism and Millerism, 
together with changes in ladies' 
dresses, showing the least possible 
" love of a bonnet," with the most 
magnificent amplitude of a skirt. 
The statistics of the town in the 



war of the Revolution were referred 
to. Ninety-one men had served in 
that war ; and in the town there was 
only one tory. He was driven away, 
and ended his days in poverty and 
wretchedness at Groton, his native 
place. A company of Mason men 
were at Bunker Hill, two of whom 
were killed, — Joseph Blood and 
Ebenezer Blood. At this point in 
his address the orator introduced 
to the audience Mrs. Nutting, a sis- 
ter of Ebenezer Blood, an old lady 
of ninety-six years. The venerable 
matron was escorted forward upon 
the platform, and was greeted with 
general applause by those present. 
In this connection it was stated 
that in the war of 1812 Mason con- 
tributed eleven men to support the 
government in the field, and in the 
recent war one hundred and twen- 
ty-one men. The speaker then took 
a prospective glance into the future, 
which on the whole he regarded as 
auspicious, while deprecating . the 
frightful visage of corruption in 
public ofiice, which threatened and 
might destroy liberty, law and re- 
publican Integrity, The town of 
Mason, he said, had been the birth- 
place of two men of world-wide 
celebrity in the inventive arts, — 
Jonas Chickering, the piano manu- 
facturer, and "Walter A. Wood, in- 
ventor of a mowing-machine, for 
which he had received the grand 
prize, and had been decorated with 
the emblem of the Legion of Honor, 
at the Paris Exhibition. In conclu- 
sion he denied the decadence of 
New England, in which some pro- 
fess to believe, and stated the rea- 
sons for the view he took. He af- 
firmed the belief in her future pros- 
perity in agricultural interests, and 
took o.ccasion incidentally to advo- 
' cate the growth of forest trees upon 



12 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



the rocky hillsides. One-third of 
the territory should be devoted in 
this wa}^ he thought, and it would 
prove to yield a return which would 
be satisftictory to the most greedy 
money-lender. He referred to the 
example of England and Holland in 
the matter of raising Improved 
breeds of cattle, and said that a 
similar policy on the part of the 
Mason farmers would insure, ac- 
cording to the ratio of Holland, 
1,900 cattle in the town instead of 
800 as at present. The orator 
closed his address somewhat abrupt- 
ly, but apologized for so doing on 
account of the length to which in 
the written form he had extended 
it, and for the reading of which 
there was not further time to spare. 

OTHER EXERCISES AT THE GROVE. 

At the close of the oration the 
" Song of Jubilee " was sung to the 
tune of " Champagne Charley," the 
solo being finely rendered by Mrs. 
Lucien P. Field, of New York, a 
native of Mason. She was accom- 
panied by Miss Lilla Larkin, of 
Townsend Centre. A well-written 
poem, of a historical character, was 
then read by Rev. E. R. Hodgman, 
which was followed by a series of 
chronicles, also of a local-historical 
character, and conceived in a sport- 
ive vein. These were read by Chas. 
E. Hill, an uuder-graduate of Dart- 
mouth, and their character will be 
indicated by the closing invita- 
tion to the now awaiting dinner at 
the tent, as follows: "Lo, the 
meat offerings and drink offerings 
are ready, and the royal Chamberlain 
waits to hasten you to the banquet. 
This day is Scripture revealed unto 
you. He that hath a purse let him 
take it, likewise his scrip, for the 
money-changers await your com- 



ing. Stay yourselves with flagons 
and be comforted with apples. To 
your tents, O Israel ! " According- 
ly Mr. Chamberlain, as Marshal, 
conducted the party to the tent, 
where Mr. G.W. Scripture, caterer, 
had provided an abundant collation. 

PROCEEDINGS AT THE TENT. 

In the tent, which was spread in 
an open lot near the church, some 
eight hundred people sat down at 
the tables and heartily enjoyed the 
viands which were spread before 
them, — a sharpened appetite being 
the sequel of the somewhat pro- 
longed exercises at the grove. 
"When all had been thus refreshed, 
the exercises of the day were con- 
tinued by the singing of a " Hymn 
of Gratitude," to the tune of " Lynd- 
hurst." Toasts and speeches then 
followed. A sentiment in honor of 
" The Great West " was responded 
to by Rev. Timothy Hill, of Kansas 
City, Mo. ; one, to " The Sons of 
New Hampshire in other States," 
was responded to by B. W. Mer- 
riam, of New York City; to "The 
Revolutionary Patriots," by Hon. 
John B. Hill; "The Day we Cele- 
brate," by Rev. S. Lee, of New Ips- 
wich; "The Town of Mason," by 
Joseph C. Mason, of Booneville, 
Mo.; the "Hills, Valleys, Fruits 
and Flowers of Mason," by L. A. 
Elliot, of Boston. 

The literary exercises were agree- 
ably varied by the singing of the 
song entitled " I cannot sing the 
old Songs," by Mrs. Field; "Twen- 
ty Years ago," by Samuel E. Wright 
and wife, of Templeton, Mass., and 
the "Parting Hymn," which was 
sung by the choir to the tune of 
"Franconia." The musical part of 
the programme throughout the 
day was, in the performance, of a 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



13 



high order of excellence, and was 
much enjoyed and applauded. 

The authors of the original hymns 
were Mrs. Louisa J. Kimball, K. L. 
Cumnock, Jr., Miss Abby H. Allen, 
and Mrs. H. M. C. Wright, in the 
order respectively in which the 
hymns occurred on the programme. 

The celebration, as a whole, was 
well planned and carried out, and 
the day was generally observed as 
a holiday by the people of the 
neighboring towns as well as those 
immediately interested. The day 
was ushered in by salutes of artil- 
lery, which reverberated over the 
majestic hills, whose echoes seemed 
to catch the note of festivity. The 
church-bells of the town also 



sounded their jocund peals, delight- 
ing Young America at the unex- 
pected recurrence of those emotions 
peculiar to Independence morning. 
The side shows of the occasion 
were sufficiently numerous to give 
the Village Common a gala day ap- 
pearance, and were liberally patron- 
ized by those who preferred the 
sportive and sensational to the in- 
tellectual and sentimental modes of 
celebration. Probably from two to 
three thousand people participated 
publicly in the festival, which must 
be regarded as a liberal convocation, 
in point of numbers, for a locality 
which may, with eminent propriety, 
be classed among the rural dis- 
tricts. 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 

BY EEV. GEORGE F. MERKIAM, OF MASON VILLAGE. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, — 

Whether cradled among these hills, adopted for a season into 
our good mother's family, or otherwise linked in interest with the 
old town whose centenary day we now celebrate, permit me to bid 
you a most cordial welcome. 

From every place to which your enterprising feet have borne 
you, far or near ; from every walk of life, however humble or high 
up 

" The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar ;" 

whether coming with the dew of youth, or the frosts of age, or with 
life's meridian strength, bending beneath the heat and burden of 
the day ; we gladly hail j'our return, and heartily rejoice with j'ou 
in the meetings and greetings of the hour. We give you a warm 
grasp of the hand, as j'ou come once more to look upon the sce- 
neiy of Mason, with all its features of beauty and grandeur ; to tread 
the soil made sacred by the labors of holy men now gone to their 
rest ; to re-enter the homes about which so many tender recollec- 
tions have clustered ; to revisit the haunts of childish frolic and 
fancy ; to worship in the churches where our fathers used to pray ; 
to muse in the church-yards where their precious dust is laid ; to 
speak one to another of all the way in which our God has led us, 
and to spend a little season together with the memories of Auld 
Lang Syne. 

And how many the spots in those early days, now transfigured 
with rosy light, as we glance backward in our life review ! How 
often can we say of what has here occurred, — 

" Still o'er that scene my memory wakes, 
And fondly broods with miser care ; 
Time but the impression stronger makes, 
As streams their cliaunels deeper wear." 

1) 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 15 

How grandly do the little incidents, recalled by the forms we 
meet to-day, loom through the mist of years ! 

" 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view," 

but not that alone, as we sing, — 

" How dear to my heart are the scenes of ray childhood, 

"When fond recollection presents them to view ; 
The meadow, the orchard, the deep-tangled wildwood, 

And every loved spot that my infancy knew ! 
The wide-spreading pond, and the mill that stood by it, 

The bridge, and the rock where the cataract fell ; 
The cot of my father, the dairy-house nigh it, 

And e'en the rude bucket that hung in the well." 

Nor can we forget the trials of those bygone days : — 

"There stands the old school-house, hard by the old church; 
That tree by its side had the flavor of birch." 

Trials by no means profitless in our subsequent experience, and 
at the time attended with an overflowing measure of kindness ; 
while to-day we look back and feel, — 

" That we of all others have reason to pay 
The tribute of thanks, and rejoice on our way, 
For the counsels that turned from the follies of youth, 
For the beauty of patience, the whiteness of truth. 
For the wounds of rebuke, when love tempered its edge. 
For the household's restraint, and the discipline's hedge." 

And then what a fragrance lingers about the memory of some 
of those early friends ! We are now consciously stronger and 
purer for having met them. Whatever is shining in our lives 
must come from the golden thread of their influence wound about 
them. One seems almost the soul's ideal : — 

'♦ His life was gentle, and the elements 
So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up, 
And say to all the world, this was a man." 

We stand beside the mound where he sleeps, and feel the place 
is holy ground ; that 

" The actions of the just 
Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust." 



16 ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 

It is a privilege to scatter roses upon his last resting-place, and 
say : — 

" Green be tlie turf above thee, 
Friend of my early days ; 
None knew thee but to love thee, 
None named thee but to praise." 

But I am treading upon sacred ground, and engrossing too mucli 
of your time. When the distant members of a household return 
to some great family gathering, the elder members of the family 
are wont to make ready the feast, and send one of the children to 
swing wide the door, and cry with childish ardor. Come in, come 
in ! So these venerable fathers, having provided a feast of reason 
and flow of soul from the lips of eloquence and poesy, have sent 
me to offer you their salutations, and say, Welcome, welcome ! 

In doing this, allow me to express the wish that this reunion 
may, for us, be typical of a better one above, where the angels 
will sing welcome home. And may they, who in this place shall 
celebrate the successive centuries of the future, have an ever 
brightening experience of peace, prosperity, and piety to record. 

Long live the good town, giving out, year by year, 
Kecruits to true manhood and womanhood dear ; 
Brave boys, modest maidens, in beauty sent forth, 
The living epistles and proof of its worth. 



ADDRESS BY JOM B. HILL. 



One hundred years ago, in August, 1768, Obadiali Parker left 
his humble dwelling on the west border of the town, near the line 
of New Ipswich, on a pilgrimage to Portsmouth, then the capital of 
the Province of New Hampshire, charged by a vote of the propri- 
etors passed January 5, 1768, with the duty " to goo to PortsmouU 
and get the town incorporated as soon as may be." Let us follow 
the pilgrim on his adventurous journey. There was then no pub- 
lic conveyance by which he could make his way.* There was no 
carriage for the conveyance of persons in the town. Indeed, the 
ox-cart was the only vehicle then owned in town, which moved on 
wheels. The first chaise brought into and owned in town was 
built expressly for my father in the year 1799, after his marriage with 
his third wife. The time is fully within my recollection when the 
first buggy or wagon, for the carriage of persons, was brought into 
town. 

The only mode Parker could adopt for making his journey was 
to go on horseback or on foot. It is likely he chose the latter as the 
least expensive. Indeed, it would take little more time, as was 
then the state of the country roads and the character of the cav- 
alry he must use. An active man, such as Parker was, he being 
then about forty-eight years old, would make the journey on foot, 
probably, in less time than on horseback. He must have made 

* It is doubtful if there was any such at that time from Boston to Ports- 
mouth. In the " Boston Gazette and County Journal," March, 1770, in an 
advertisement, Joseph Hart notifies the public in a card that " he has set 
up a stage from Portsmouth to Boston, making one trip a week. The 
hour of starting from Boston being about eight o'clock in the morning on 
Tuesdays." 

3 



18 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



his way directly through the forests and by the sparse settlements 
to his journey's end, which he would accomplish in about two days. 
Arrived at Portsmouth, he would there find the only power that 
could give success to his mission, in the person of the Royal Gov- 
ernor, the representative of his Royal Majesty, George III., styled 
" our truly and well-beloved John Wentworth, Esq., our Governor 
and Commander-in-Chief of our Province of New Hampshire." 

In our day charters and acts of incorporation are granted by 
the Legislature, on application of the parties. Then, they were 
matters of royal grace and favor, to be granted by the Governor 
with much ceremon}^, not to say pomp and splendor. Parker, hav^- 
ing arrived at Poi'tsmouth, must have made application to know 
at what day and hour his Majesty's Royal Governor and Council 
would be pleased to give him an audience, and at the set time 
have presented himself, with the humble petition of his fellow- 
citizens, and having made such suggestions, and answered such 
inquiries as the case needed, he succeeded in gaining the object of 
his journey, in the grant of the charter for the incorporation of the 
town. 

But fees and charges must be paid. The officials surrounding the 
governor lived on fees. It was understood that such expenses 
must be incurred, and Parker was charged " to disburst the money " 
for that purpose, and promised that he " shall have a hansom re- 
ward for the same." His bill rendered to the town for charges and 
disbursements was £12. 6. 6. 3, amounting to about $41.00. It 
was allowed and paid. The items composing this bill would be at 
this day a great curiosity, but they have escaped all search. The 
proprietors voted to have the town called Sharon ; but no one will 
regret that Parker so far departed from his instructions as to bring 
back the charter with the name of Mason inserted instead, un- 
doubtedly with reference to Captain John Mason, the original 
grantee of the Province of New Hampshire. This venerable doc- 
ument, bearing date August 26, 17G8, I have now the pleasure of 
exhibiting to you. Thus, one hundred years ago this day, the au- 
thority and obligation to assume the rights and powers and duties 
of a town were granted to our fathers. 

By the terms of the charter, Obadiah Parker, " Gentleman," was 
appointed to call the first meeting of the inhabitants as a town. 
For this purpose he issued his warrant in due form, under date of 



ADDRESS BY JOHN B. HILL. 19 

September 5, 1768, for a meeting to be held September 19, at which 
meeting Obacliah Parker was chosen Moderator ; Josiah Wheeler, 
Town Clerk ; Josiah Wheeler, Obadiah Parker, and Joseph Ballard, 
Selectmen ; Reuben Barrett and John Swallow, Constables ; Na- 
than Hall, Treasurer ; John Asten and Jonathan Winship, Tith- 
ingmen ; Thomas Barrett, Enosh Lawrence, Jr., Lemuel Spaulding, 
and Josiah Robbins, Surveyors of Highways ; Capt. Thomas 
Tarbell, Sealer of Weights and Measures ; John Asten, Sealer of 
Leather ; Richard Lawrence and Joseph Blood, Fence Viewers ; 
Samuel Lawrence and Joseph Lowell, Hog Constables ; Aaron 
Wheeler and Oliver Elliott, Deer Officers. Thus the territory, for- 
merly known by the name of No. 1, became legally a town, and, 
with some additions of territory subsequently made, has remained 
a town to the present day. 

It is worth while to pause a few moments, and consider the char- 
acter of that important political body, a New England town. No 
such political organization was ever known in England. There 
cities, boroughs, and parishes, have existed from time immemorial ; 
but none of these has served as the model of our towns. These 
last in this country are of New England origin, and are peculiar to 
New England, except so far as they have, with more or less fidel- 
ity, been copied in some of the more Western States. 

Our Pilgrim Fathers, when, driven by high-church persecution 
from their pleasant homes in England, they took refuge in Hol- 
land, found there a division of the country into townships en- 
trusted with the internal regulation of their own affairs, the ap- 
pointment of selectmen, or municipal officers, the registry of deeds, 
the establishment of highways, and the erection of houses and 
farm buildings along the line of the travelled roads, none of which 
existed in England, and all of which, with great public benefit, 
they introduced into their new settled country.* 

* Of Holland, in 1608, Motley writes : "It was a land where every child 
went to school, where almost every individual inhabitant could read and 
write, where even the middle classes were proficient in mathematics and 
the classics, and could speak two or more modern languages ; where the 
whole nation, with but few exceptions, were producers of material wealth, 
and where compai'atively little of unproductive consumption prevailed." 
— Motley, United Netherlands, Vol. iv., p. 432. 



20 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

These organizations are the purest democracies the world has 
ever seen. Every man in the town is not onl}^ a voter, but is 
trained up in the fearless and constant exercise of the voter's 
rights. Here no one has any peculiar or special privileges. All 
stand on the same footing. Every man has a right to be voted 
for, or to vote for any office. There is here no chance for an 
aristocracy to spring up and trample on the rights of the people. 
In the Southern States no such organizations ever existed. If 
those States had been overspread with towns, filled with people 
trained up in the exercise of the voter's rights, the slaveholding 
aristocracy could never have carried the Southern people, as they 
did, against their will, into rebellion. 

One of the first incidents attendant on arriving at the condition 
of a town was found to be taxes, and that incident has contin- 
ued to attend its existence to the present day. To facilitate 
the collection of taxes, the town was divided into the West and 
East sides. This division was made on the road leading from 
Townsend to the north part of the town by what was then the 
residence of Dea, Nathan Hall. All east of that road and north 
of the centre of the town on that road belonged to the East side ; 
all west of that road and south of the centre to the West side. A 
list of taxes was made out amounting to £17. 16. 6. 2. and com- 
mitted to John Swallow, constable, for the West side, and a similar 
list amounting £17. 10. 7. 1. was committed to Reuben Barrett, 
constable for the East side, for collection, by warrants each bearing 
date January 28, 1769. 

These documents show who were then inhabitants of the town, 
and the rate of taxes, and their relative wealth or means. On 
the West side were Josiah Bobbins, Ens. Enosh Lawrence, Samuel 
Lawrence, John Swallow, Isaac Holdin, William Badcock, Wil- 
liam Barrett, Nathaniel Barrett, Jonathan Foster, Stevens Law- 
rence, Thomas Robbins, Enosh Lawrence, Jr., Aaron Wheeler, 
Nathaniel Hosmer, John Button, Widow Burge, John Elliot, 
Moses Lowell, Richard Lawrence, Joseph Merriam, David 
Lowell, David Lowell, Jr., Nathan Whipple, John Jefts, John As- 
ten, Joseph Barrett, Nathan Procter, Lieut. Obadiah Parker, 
Joseph Bullard, Zachariah Da%ds, Reuben Tucker, Joseph Tucker, 
Amos Dakin, Thomas Barrett, Joseph Lowell, Benjamin King, 
Edmund .Town, Cornelius Cook, and Dennis McLean. The list 



ADDRESS BY JOHN B. HILL. 21 

also includes two more names of persons, whom I judge to have 
been non-residents. On this list the highest tax was paid by 
Josiah Robbins. He lived on the farm afterwards owned by Dea. 
Jotham Webber, and now owned by his grandsons. 

On the East side the names were Capt. Thomas Tarbell, Elias 
Elliot, Jason Russell, Nathaniel Smith, Joseph Ross, Nathaniel 
Tarbell, Edmund Tarbell, Jonathan Williams, Reuben Barrett, 
Hannah Elliot widow, Samuel Scripture, James Weathee, Lemuel 
Spaulding, Elizabeth Powers widow, Joseph Blood, Abel Shedd, 
George Woodard, Jabez Kendall, Oliver Elliot, Daniel Fish, Mary 
Jefts widow, Thomas Jefts, Jonathan Jefts, Nathan Hall, James 
Hall, Patience Fish widow, Eleazer Fish, Ebenezer Blood, Jason 
Dunster, Joseph Herrick, Jonathan Winship, Samuel Tarbell, 
Nathaniel Barrett, Jr., John Leonard, Jonathan Fish. On this list 
I do not recognize any non-residents. The highest tax on this 
list, and the highest in the town, was paid by Capt. Thomas Tar- 
bell. He lived on the farm now owned by his great grandson, 
Thomas B. Tarbell, which farm has remained in the same family 
for five generations, almost or quite one hundred and twenty 
years. Of the persons named in these tax lists there are twenty- 
three who have descendants now residing in the town, and many 
of them upon the farms then owned by their ancestors. 

One hundred years ! What a period in the life of nations ! Not 
twenty such have passed since the birth of Christ, scarce ten since 
pagan gods were publicly worshipped by princes and people in 
England by our British ancestors. Of the human family, scarce 
one in thirtj^-six thousand attains that age, and yet in the list I 
have just read of the names of the tax-payers in the first assess- 
ment on the town, are found two who attained that wonderful 
age.* One of these, Jonathan Foster, died at Ashby, March 31, 

* Desiring to ascertain, as nearly as might be, the ratio or proportion of 
persons living in Southern New Hampshire in 1768, who would attain tlie 
age of one hundred yeiirs or more, I addressed a letter to Dr. Edwai'd 
Jarvis, the well-known statistician, asking a reply to that question. In 
reply he kindly furnished me a very elaborate calculation and estimates 
from the United States census, in which he deduced from the returns for 
the years 1830, '40, '50, and 'GO, that of white persous, 1 in 39,760 would 
be fouud of that age, and that of the white and colored united 1 in 27,738 
would be found to be of that age. The report of aged persons in the 



22 CENTENNIAL CELENRATION. 

1821, at the age of more than one hundred years. He resided, 
when I first knew him, in the south part of the town near the State 
line, a little east of the road to Townsend, in a wretched log hut. 
For man}^ years, I think near forty, he was supported by the town 
as a pauper. I remember to have seen him frequently passing by 
on his way for his rations, to the residence of John Blodgett, Esq., 
chairman of the Board of Selectmen. Although then extremely 
aged, he walked with a quick military step, carrying a staff rather 
for ornament than use ; and returning with his moderate supply 
of provisions, a little meal, pork, and perhaps a few potatoes, in a 
sack upon his shoulder. He had an inveterate antipathy to work 
of all kinds, but was fond of hunting, and among other feats of 
agility he would imitate on all-fours the running and leaping of 
a bear. Hence the cognomen, b}" which he was universally known, 
of " Bear Foster." It is not unlikely that this careful husbandry 
of his muscular energy tended to the lengthening out of his da3rs 
to the unusual term of one hundred years. He was a soldier in 
the army of the Revolution. 

The other centenarian was Oliver Elliot. He was born in Gro- 
ton, probably in what is now Pepperell, Aug. 24, 1734. He was 
the son of Elias Elliot, who came into town about the year 1762, 
and died Feb. 23, 1785, at the age of seventy-eight years. His 
three sons, William, Oliver, and Elias, Jr., settled in Mason, 
Oliver, as early as 1764; AVilliam, as early as 1753. OliA^er was 
an active, industrious man, and in the early period of the settle- 
ment, both before and after the incorporation of the town, was fre- 
quentl}' employed in the public business, and elected to offices in 
the affairs of the place and town. In the last years of his life he 
felt the hard hand of poverty, but never wore the garments of a 

colored population is so manifestly exaggerated as to be wholly unreli- 
able, so that that of the white people alone should be considered. He 
also made an estimate of the population of the southern counties in New 
Hampshire in 1768, at G7,3G0, in which the number of centenarians at 1 in 
27,738 would be 2.4 and at 1 in 39,700 it would be 1.7. 

By the census of England in 1852, there were of men plus 100, 35, of 
women plus 100, 53=88, and by that of 1853 the men were 31, the women 
62=93. The population of England in 1750 was estimated at 6,467,000. 
It would thus appear that of persons living in England in 1750, about 1 
in 36,687 lived to one hundred years or more. 



ADDRESS BY JOHN B. HILL. 23 

town pauper. He also was a soldier of the Revolutionary army. 
He died in September, 1836, aged one hundred and two years. 
He left numerous descendants residing in the town, and many 
who have sought out homes in other places. 

In 1858, I published a history of the town of Mason, in which 
is contained everything which I judged could be of interest to 
preserve, which I could learn from tradition or from the records 
of the Proprietary, which exist in a perfect state of preservation 
from the first meeting in 1749 to the last in 1773, and from the 
records of the town from the first meeting in 1768, to that of 1858, 
all in like perfect preservation ; and from the records of the Con- 
gregational Church from 1772, the date of its organization, to 
1858 ; and of the Baptist Church from its organization in 1786 to 
1858. In this work will be found a record of marriages commenc- 
ing with that of the patriarch, Thomas Tarbell, June 30, 1666, 
down to Oct. 31, 1857. Also a list of deaths commencing in 
1758, and extending to 1858, and numerous family registers, taken 
from the town records, of a date previous to 1790. Also a list of 
the names of those who appear upon the tax lists to have been 
inhabitants of the town previous to the year 1790, in which is in- 
dicated, as far as could be leai-ned from tradition or other means, 
the place from which, and the time when, the individual came into 
town ; the place to which, and the time when, any of them removed 
from town, and the place of residence of each one in the town, and 
the time of decease, age, etc., of such as died in town. A mark 
also indicates such as served in the army or navy in the war of 
the Revolution, and any noteworthy incidents in the histor}^ of 
each one are also brieflj^ stated. I also published at the same 
time a biographical sketch of my father, the late Rev. Ebenezer 
Hill, in which are inserted his two published lectures upon the 
early history of the town, which contain much that, unless it had 
been preserved in this form, would long since have faded from 
memory and perished. As these works are accessible to all who 
feel an interest to inquire into these matters, I sliall not in this 
discourse enter so fully into minute particulars of the history of 
the town, as in ordinary circumstances it would have been advis- 
able to do. 

I have shown how the town was organized, and as to civil affairs, 



42 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

placed upon a foundation that remains to the present day. Next 
in order and interest follows its ecclesiastical organization. 

Our fathers esteemed their religious interests not second to 
their secular affairs. I now proceed to show what they did in the 
way of organizing for religious worship, and making provision for 
the accommodation of the worshippers. As to the places of wor- 
ship, one of the conditions of the grant of the township by the 
Masonian proprietors was, that the grantees " build a convenient 
house for the public worship of God, at or before the last day of 
May, 1753, for the use of those who shall then or afterwards in- 
habit there." In 1751, a vote was passed to build a house 30 by 
24 feet. The dimensions were afterwards changed to 40 by 30 
feet. This house was erected, and stood about three rods north- 
east of the place where the second meeting-house stood, — a locality 
familiar to many persons present. The first house was never fin- 
ished, but was so far fitted for use that it served for public worship 
and town meetings till the second was built, having, by a vote of 
the proprietors, been made over to the town. The second house 
was raised in 1789. It was so far finished that it was used for the 
ceremonies of the ordination of my father, Nov, 3, 1790, but was 
not completed and dedicated till Nov. 26, 1795. It continued to 
be used for public worship and town meetings till the third house 
was built, not by the town, but by a religious society in connection 
with the Congregational Church, in November, 1837, and after- 
wards for town meetings till the town-house was built, in Novem- 
ber, 1848. It was then sold at auction and removed. The Bap- 
tist society built a house placed between the roads, near the dwell- 
ing-house lately of Nathaniel Smith. I have no means of ascer- 
taining in what year it was built ; but I recollect the building at 
least sixty-five years ago, and it was then no new structure. It 
was never finished outside or in, and could not be occupied in cold 
weather. It was sold and removed in 1812. The brick meeting- 
house in the village was built in 1827, by a new Baptist society, 
and has been occupied to the present time. The meeting-house of 
the .second Congregational society was built in the village by sub- 
scription of individuals, and dedicated in December, 1849. The 
Christian Chapel was erected in 1835. These are all the houses 
for public worship ever erected in the town. 



ADDRESS BY JOHN B. HILL. 25 

The Congregational Church was organized October 13, 1772. It 
consisted of twenty-one members, twelve men and nine women. 
On the same da}'^, Jonathan Searle was ordained pastor of the 
church, and minister of the town. Disagreements soon arose be- 
tween him and the church, and between him and the town, which, 
as time went on, became more perplexing and unyielding. The 
result was his dismissal by the church, Ma}^ 4, 1781, and by the 
town August 14, 1781. Any one wishing to read the details of this 
long and singular controversy will find them fully, perhaps too 
fully, set forth in the History of Mason, before referred to. Mr. 
Searle was born in Rowley, in 1744, and graduated at Harvard 
College in 1764. I remember him as a grave, stately gentleman, 
tall, and of good personal appearance, always well dressed, wear- 
ing the cocked hat, knee-breeches, long stockings, and shoe-buc- 
kles, — the costume of a gentleman in his early days. Soon after he 
was dismissed he ceased to preach, and devoted himself to the 
care of his valuable real estate and the cultivation of his farm, 
the same now owned by Ebenezer Blood, the noble house upon 
which, now in a fine state of presei'vation, was built by Mr. Searle 
ninety -one years ago. I judge that he was not addicted to books 
or study, and had little taste for literary pursuits. He held the 
office of Justice of the Peace many years, but did little business 
as such. Indeed, little in that line in his day and region needed 
to be done by any one. He died December 7, 1812, aged sixty- 
eight years. No monument marks the place of his burial. He and 
his wife were buried by the side of the monument of B. Witherell, 
his son-in-law. His successor in office was my father, the Rev. 
Ebenezer Hill. He was born in Cambridge, in January, 1766, 
graduated at Harvard College in 1786, pursued his professional 
studies under Dr. Seth Payson, of Rindge, was licensed to preach 
October 28, 1788, and was employed by the people of this town 
to preach for them early in 1789. His services met with such 
acceptance that the church and town united in a call for him 
to be their minister. He accepted the call, and was ordained No- 
vember 3, 1790. He remained minister of the town till December 
19, 1835, when he was, at his request, released by the town from 
the contract on their part. He continued in office as pastor of the 
church till his death. May 20, 1854, in the eighty-ninth year of his 
age and the sixty-fourth of his pastorship. In 1791 he bought the 
4 



26 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

farm, and on it, in 1800, he bnilt the house in which, and on the 
farm to which he made some additions, he passed the remainder of 
his daj's. Upon this farm, with the pittance of two hundred and 
fifty dollars for a salary, he brought up his numerous family of four- 
teen children, only one of whom died in infancy. Order, economy, 
and industry were the rules of his household. Abundance of plain 
fare, coarse, strong, but decent raiment, were provided for all. Two 
of his sons graduated at Harvard University, and one at Dartmouth 
College. Rev. Andrew H. Reed was settled as colleague pastor with 
him in November, 1836, and remained till he was dismissed, at 
his own request, December 11, 1839. My father then resumed 
the pastoral duties of the parish, and performed the labors 
of the station till August, 1840, when my brother, the Rev. Joseph 
B. Hill, was emplo^^ed to assist him. He was settled as co-pastor 
October 20, 1841, and remained till April, 1847, when he was, 
at his own request, dismissed. The Rev. J. L. Armes was 
settled as co-pastor in 1851, and remained till after my father's death. 

In 1839 and 1840, he represented the town in the Legisla- 
ture of the State, but weary of public life, and longing for the quiet 
of home, he declined further service in that line. From the time 
of the settlement of Mr. Reed, my father continued to devote his 
life and labors to the business of his sacred calling, as opportunity 
presented in the neighboring towns, until the infirmities of age, 
wasting his energies and strength, compelled him to retire, and 
pass the evening of his life in the quiet of his household and fire- 
side. I have thus briefly sketched the outlines of his life and 
career. Thus he lived and thus he died. It is not for me to pro- 
nounce his eulogy. 

My brother, the Rev. Joseph B. Hill, after leaving Mason, took 
charge of the church in Colebrook, N. H., where he remained ten 
years, and then removed to West Stewartstown, an adjoining town 
and remained in charge of the church in that place five years. In 
1862, he purchased a small farm in Temple, N. H., and removed" 
and settled his family there. In March, 1864, he accepted an ap- 
pointment in the Christian Commission, and in that capacity joined 
the army, and with fidelity, industry', and zeal gave himself to the 
duties of that office, in the army of the Cumberland, until, at 
Chattanooga, he met with an accident on the railroad so severe as 
to terminate in his death, June 16, 1864. These are all the pas- 



ADDRESS BY JOHN B. HILL. 27 

tors of this church who have gone to their reward. Mr. Armes 
was dismissed, at his own request, May 13, 1857. Immediately 
after Mr. Armes left, the Rev. Daniel Goodwin commenced preach- 
ing for this church, and continued in that employment till he was 
installed as pastor, April 18, 1860, and he remains in office till the 
present time. 

The Baptist Church was, as styled in the record, "imbodied" 
September 28, 1786. The original members were Ezra Mansfield, 
William Elliott, and Jonathan Chandler ; Sarah Blood, Anna Law- 
rence, Hannah Chandler, Sarah Blood, ye 2d, and Molly Ball. 
To these were added October 26, Joseph Bullard, Aaron Wheeler, 
widow Sarah Elliott, Sarah Tarbell, Eebecca Mansfield, and Re- 
becca Hildreth. Several of these persons had been members of 
Mr. Searle's church. The church gave Br. William Elliott a call 
to settle with them in the gospel ministry, to which he gave his 
consent, and was ordained on " ye third Wednesday of October, 
1788." He served faithfully in that office, in his day and genera- 
tion. He died June 4, 1830. Three of his sons were educated at 
public institutions, and became ministers in the Baptist church. 
Those who would know more of this church and of their worthy 
pastor, are referred to the History of Mason. 

Such as I have described were the men who, one hundred years 
ago, assumed the burdens of the civil, political, and religious or- 
ganization of a town, and secured to us, their successors, the rights 
and franchises, following and attendant on that state. I shall not, 
for the reasons already given, detail at this time, in any minute 
and methodical way, the subsequent doings of the town, but will 
rather employ what remains of time and space in exhibiting some 
of the wonderful changes, in all that is interesting to us as men, 
which have taken place in the world within the past century, most 
of them within the period to which the recollection of some who 
hear me extends. In 1760, George the Third came to the throne. 
No monarch more arbitrary, self-willed, and obstinate has reigned 
in England within the last two hundred years. He was the undis- 
puted sovereign of all the provinces and colonies on this continent, 
which afterwards, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, 
composed the United States. The people were all loyal, and, until 
after the peace of 1763, there was no apprehension of arbitrary or 



28 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

oppressive action on the part of the crown or parliament, and no 
thought of independence or resistance to the power of Great 
Britain. In 1759, Quebec was taken by Wolfe. The conquest of 
Canada and Cape Breton followed, and by the peace of 1763 they 
were confirmed to England. Thus the French power on this con- 
tinent was broken and gone forever. There was no longer dread 
of Indian wars, excited and promoted by French influence and aid. 
No longer was the mother's sleep to be disturbed by dreams of 
horrid Indians breaking into her lowly cabin. No more were the 
morning slumbers of the inhabitants of the border towns liable to 
be roused by the hideous warwhoop, or their eyes to be daunted by 
the gleam of the tomahawk, or the blaze of the conflagration of a 
neighbor's dwelling. The dispute between Massachusetts and 
New Hampshire for the jurisdiction of the territory on which we 
live, which, for more than one huudrefl years, had made doubtful 
the titles and retarded the settlement of the land, had been de- 
cided in favor of New Hampshire. The line was run in February 
and March, 1741, and has remained the line between the States 
from that time to the present da3\ The land was granted by the 
Masonian proprietors to the proprietors of the town, in 1749, by 
the name of Township No. 1, and the settlement commenced by 
Lawrence in 1751, followed by Hall, Parker, Swallow, Tarbell, and 
others in 1752. The number increased slowly till, in 1767, at which 
time, by a census taken by the provincial authority, it was found 
to be two hundred and seventy-eight. After the incorporation, in 
1768, the increase became more rapid, and in 1775 the number was 
found to be five hundred and one. I have given the names of those 
who were assessed to pay the first tax levied upon the town. The 
inventory upon which it was assessed I have not found. The ear- 
liest inventory I have found, which furnishes means to compare the 
former with the present condition of the town, as to property and 
valuation, is that of 1777. The mode of making out the inven- 
tory of the real estate at that time diflfered so much from that now 
in use, that no just comparison can be made between them. But 
the inventory of the cattle and horses was so similar to that of the 
present day as to furnish a fair criterion of comparison. In an 
agricultm-al town there is no better index of the wealth and pros- 
perity of the people than that furnished by the number and value 
of the cattle, horses, and other stock owned by the inhabitants. 



ADDRESS BY JOHN B. HILL. 29 

The folio-wing statement is thd fairest exhibit I can make of the 
property and taxes of the town for the years 1777 and 1868, as 
compared with each other : — 

1777. 1868. 



jroiis, 
Horses, • 


38 . 


189 


Cattle, 


. 354 


761 


Valuation, 


. $540* . 


$584,730 


Taxes, 


. $336 


. $12,670.78 


Inhabitants, . 


. 501 


. about 2,000 



This little book which I exhibit, six inches long and three inches 
wide, composed of eight leaves inartificially folded and ruled, con- 
tains the whole inventory of the real and personal property of the 
town for the year 1775.* A large share of the increase in valua- 
tion is due to the increase in population and business in the village. 
The Columbian Manufacturing Company have made large invest- 
ments in cotton factories in that place, which have added greatly 
to the wealth, population, and business of the town. The railroad, 
opened in 1850, has greatly promoted the business interests of 
the town. 

Our predecessors of that day were a simple-minded, frugal, in- 
dustrious people. They lived within their means. Their farms 
supplied their wants. Their garments were composed of wool and 
flax, the produce of their own fields and flocks. Cotton, so far 
from claiming then to be king, and to have the right to overturn 
the government because his claim to rule was not submitted to, 
had not then begun to lift up his head. The seeds must be re- 

* It is obvious that five hundred and forty dollars is no adequate state- 
ment of the value of the real and personal property in the town in the 
year 1777. I have not been able to discover the basis upon which the es- 
timate was made. Instead of giving the number of acres and value of the 
farms and buildings, and of the cattle, the mode was as follows : — 

Take for instance the valuation of Capt. Thomas Tarbell, of that year. 

Poll, Orchard, Arable, Mow- Pastur- Oxen & Cows, Two & three £ s. d. 

ing, ing, Horses, year olds, 

1 J 4 8 12 3 2 4 = 1. 18. 9. 

If the taxes were apportioned according to the ratio or rule by which the 
property was valued, no matter what that ratio was, the burdens would be 
equally divided. If each man's property was assessed its proper share of 
five hundred and forty dollars, the valuation of the town, each would pay 
his part of three hundred and thirty-six dollars, the amount of the taxes. 



30 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

moved from cotton before it could be spun. While this must be 
done by hand, the cost was too great for its fabrics to be intro- 
duced into common use. "What was the production of cotton in 
1768, I have no means of knowing, but it must have been incon- 
siderable, since, in 1784, it is said that an American vessel, having 
on board seventy-one bags of cotton, was seized at Liverpool, for 
violation of revenue laws, on the ground that so large an amount 
of cotton could not have been produced in the United States ; and 
when an old planter obtained fifteen small bales from five acres, it 
was not thought strange that he exclaimed, " Well, well, I have 
done with cotton ; here is enough to make stockings for all the 
people in America!" In 1791, the export was but one hundred 
and eighty-nine thousand three hundred and six pounds, or less 
than five thousand bales. In 1860 it had reached thi-ee millions 
eight hundred and twelve thousand three hundred and forty-five 
bales. This immense increase in the production of cotton, and 
corresponding increase in the number of slaves, dates its origin 
from the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney, in 1794, and 
its introduction into use. From that time cotton became an im- 
portant article of production and commerce. In the times of our 
fathers, the spinning-wheel and the loom were found in every house- 
hold, and were in frequent if not constant use. The garments thus 
produced were coarse, strong, warm, and enduring, and made up, 
as they mostly were, by the busy fingers of the wives, mothers, and 
daughters, it was a happy circumstance that there were no bills 
left to be paid ; for the supplies of cash were scanty and hard to 
be got.* The surplus produce of the farmers must be loaded upon 
their ox-carts, and teamed off to Groton, Concord, and Boston for 
a market. Slow, long, and tedious was the journey, and small the 
aggregate of the returns, but they sufficed for their very moderate 
wants. A newspaper then was rarely seen in town, and very sel- 
dom a letter. The farmers, on these market excursions, gathered 
up the news of the day, which, on their return, they retailed out to 

* The introduction of the mauufacture of cotton and woollen goods by- 
machinery took away from the women of the families their former employ- 
ment in making domestic cloths. It was tbe first step toward that wide- 
spread revolution in manners and customs which has culminated in the 
declaration of woman's rights and the claim of the ballot for the gentle 
sex. 



ADDRESS BY JOHN B. HILL. 



31 



their neighbors and friends, eager listeners, on Sundays, at the in- 
tervals of worship. At the commencement of this century, and for 
many j'ears after, there was scarce a household in the place that 
failed to be represented at the house of public worship on every 
fair Sunday of the season. 

The post-offices at New Ipswich, established in 1800, and at 
Amherst probably at an earlier date, were all that we had to 
depend upon at the commencement of this century and for many 
years after. Once a week regularly one of the company of 
subscribers for the " Farmer's Cabinet" went to Amherst for the 
bundle of papers, and took letters to be mailed, and brought back 
from the office letters found there for our people. But this was a 
great advance on the means of intelligence enjoyed in 1768. Few 
were the newspapers then printed in the whole country, and meagre 
the news they had to communicate. The first newspaper printed 
in America was the " Boston Newsletter," in 1704 ; the first in 
Philadelphia in 1719 ; the first in New York in 1725 ; the first in 
New Hampshire in 1757. It was the " New Hampshire Gazette ; or, 
State Journal, and General Advertiser," — a very large name for so 
small a paper, of which this is a specimen. [Here was exhibited 
the paper referred to, being a folio sheet fifteen inches long by 
nine and a half inches wide, bearing date April 2, 1788, filled 
principally with advertisements of lands to be sold for non-pay- 
ment of taxes ; among which were the advertisements of John 
Lawrence, and of Thomas Tarbell, collectors for the West and East 
sides in Mason.] This paper contained a report of debates in the 
House of Commons, in Parliament, under date of July 27, and news 
from the continent of Europe, under date of October 20. This 
paper was printed on a very dingy sheet, and published at Exeter, 
N. H. Under some changes of name it still continues to be 
published, being, so far as I know, the oldest newspaper published 
in the United States. Now newspapers crowd each other, and 
periodical literature is so abundant as to be a drug, and many a 
family in our midst would be decidedly in want of news, if going to 
church on Sunday were the condition on which their supply 
depended. So again, instead of being forced as our fathers were^ 
to gather up the little surplus of their harvests and haul it off upon 
their ox-carts to distant markets, our farmers find a ready sale for 
their produce at their own doors, or at the neighboring cities and 



32 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

villages, within easy distance, or they can despatch it to Boston in 
three hours' time by railroad. So again, with regard to the 
knowledge of what is going on in the world abroad, the difference 
is as marked as in the matter just alluded to. Then, news from 
England, in our cities on the sea-board, five months old, was fresh 
and racy ; now we must have it in three hours, or we grumble at the 
length of time taken by the Atlantic Cable to convey intelligence, 
and in less than a week we have news of a victory achieved by the 
English troops in the heart of Abyssinia, — a country of which little 
more was then known than we now know of the inhabitants of the 
moon. Just one hundred years ago, in 1768, James Bruce set 
out on his adventurous journey into that country in search of the 
sources of the Nile, which eluded his vision, and were only 
revealed almost one hundred years after to Baker, the enterprising 
traveller. 

Then news at. Boston seven days old from New York was 
swift enough for an express. Now if we cannot obtain news from 
Washington in less than the same number of minutes, we become 
almost frantic, and talk of starting new telegraph companies ; then 
sloop navigation was the only water communication between New 
York and Albany, depending mainly on the wind, which, failing 
often, made the voyage that of weeks, and which with the most 
favorable winds was seldom made in less than four days. But a 
great revolution in intercourse and means of communication 
between distant places and countries was about to take place. 
Steam had been used as a propelling power, but had never suc- 
ceeded in carrying itself along with what it propelled. Upon 
railroads, stationary engines had applied steam to the movement 
of cars, but proved to be a very limited and inefficient mode of 
affecting transit. But in August, 1807, sixty-one years ago, the 
problem of the steam-power transporting itself with the vehicle it 
moved was solved by Fulton. On the 7th of August, in that year, 
commenced a successful operation in the use of steam, that has 
revolutionized the business of the world. Then Robert Fulton 
started in the first steamboat that would go, — the Clermont, — on a 
voyage from New York to Albany. Most people doubted the 
success of the experiment, and many were looking on expecting to 
witness a failure. But at the word of the inventor the wheels 
began to move, slowly at first, but on they went faster and faster, 



ADDRESS BY JOHN B. HILL. 



33 



until the Clermont, freighted with happy friends surrounding the 
inventor, vanished out of sight up the river, leaving the doubters 
and scoflfers staring in blanlc amazement. Tliousands lined the 
banks of the river all along to Albany, to witness the wonder. 
It is said that the inhabitants of Newburg turned out in a body 
" to see a blacksmith shop go by." From that time to this, 
improvements have been made in the construction of steamboats, 
and the engines for moving them, until the ocean is spanned by 
these swift messengers moving from land to land, from our 
country to Europe in eight days, and carrying often one thousand 
persons in safety, comfort, and ease. Fulton's boat moved on to 
Albany at the rate of about six miles an hour. In 1867, just 
sixty years after this doubtful but successful experiment, the 
" Chauncey Vibbard," a steamer of the Albany day-line, made the 
voj-age from New York to Albany at the rate of thirty miles an 
hour, carrying five hundred and fifty passengers. How little do 
"we yet appreciate the immense importance of that voyage of the 
little steamboat Clermont? Steamboats and railroads are the 
bands that bind the Union together. Without them what could we 
do with the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, and California? 
Without them how could we have subdued the rebellion ? 

Fulton having successfully solved the problem of making steam 
carrj^ itself and its cargo upon the water, it remained for Stephenson 
to apply the same principle to steam upon the land ; to do which 
with perfect success taxed his inventive powers and his patience in 
experiments from 1815 to 1825, when the iron horse, carrying his 
huge train of cars, was made ready to be sent careering over the 
plains, through the mountains, across the rivers, through deep cuts 
and over deep fillings, from land's end to land's end, and making 
cities once a day's journey apart to be but suburbs of each other ; 
thus giving to the business of the nineteenth century a magnitude 
and momentum greater than that of the whole volume of the five 
preceding centuries. Let us compare, for a few moments, the state 
and movements of business before and since that epoch. 

In 1764 the mail went twice a week from New York to Phila- 
delphia, and since the close of the Revolutionary War a saddle- 
bag-boy has carried the mail without any protection between these 
cities.* When the mail-bags were placed in a sulkey to be carried 

* Tkavelling in New York One Hundred Years Ago. — The advertise- 
ment, of which we here give a Uteral copy, is deserving of preservation, 
5 



34 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

over the same road, the people were lost in astonishment at the 
increase of business, and were utterly amazed when they saw them 
for that purpose committed to a four-hoi'se coach. Now a large 
railroad car is required to carry the mail between these cities, and 
it is despatched two or three times a day for that purpose. 
Passengers, instead of taking three days, to make the journey in a 
mud-wagon, as in 1768, now ma}?-, eight times in twenty-four 
hours, step on board a commodious car, choosing the time to suit 
themselves, and i-ecliniug at ease, reading the news, conversing with 
a friend, amusing themselves in any way, or passing the hours in 
profound sleep, make the journey between these cities in about 
four hours.* In 1865, thirty-five tons of mail matter were daily 
received at the post-office in New York city, for its citizens, and 
fifty-five tons were sent from that office every day. The average 

on account of the quanitness of the inn-signs, the peculiarity of the spelling 
and diction, the "shifting" of the passengers which it announces, and 
the general idea it gives us of the way in which travelling was performed 
in America at the time it was issued : — 

" Philadelphia STAGE-WAGGON, and New York STAGE-BOAT performs 

their Stages twice a "Week. 

" JOHN BUTLER, with his waggon, sets out on Mondays from his House, 
at the Sign of the Death of the Fox, in Strawberry Ally, and drives the 
same day to Trenton Eerry, when Francis Holman meets him, and proceeds 
on Tuesday to Brunswick, and the passengers and goods being shifted into 
the waggon of Isaac Fitzraudolph, he takes them to the New Blazing Star 
to Jacob Fitzrandolph's the same day, Avhere Rubin Fitzraudolph, with a 
boat well suted, will receive them, and take them to New York that night. 
John Butler retui-ning to Philadelphia on Tuesday with the passengers and 
goods delivered to him by Francis Holman, will again set out for 
Trenton Fei-ry on Thursday, and Francis Holman, &c., will carry his 
passengers and goods, with the same expedition as above to New-York. 
— Weekly Mercury. " March 8, 1759." 

* " For speed and ease, cars are of course unsurpassed; but for ro- 
mance, observation, interest, there is nothing like the old-fashioned stage- 
coach. Cars are city, coaches are country ; cars are the luxurious life of 
well-born and long-pursed people ; coaches are the stirring, eventful 
career of people who have their own way to make in the world. Cars 
shoot on independent, thrusting off your sympathy with a snort; coaches 
admit you to all the little humanities; every jolt harmonizes and adjusts 
you till you become a locomotive world, tunefully rolling iu your own 
orbit, independent of the larger world beneath." — Gail Hamilton, vol.vi., p. 
197 (Gala Days). 



ADDRESS BY JOHN B. HILL. 



35 



number of mail-bags received was three hundred and eighty-five, 
and of those sent out seven hundred and thirteen ; the number of 
letters and newspapers collected by the carriers for tlie quarter 
ending Dec. 31, 1865, was over three millions, nnd tlie nuniVicr 
delivered by them over three millions six hundred thousand. The 
delivery from the post-office boxes for the same time was over five 
millions, and the business and number of bags and letters have 
vastly increased since that day. 

But time would fail me to speak of the telegraph, by which a 
message can be sent across the Atlantic in a space of time too 
short to be measured ; of gas, which, in-doors, preceded by the tal- 
low-candle through all the vicissitudes of spermaceti, of lamps of 
various forms and patterns, consuming oils and many illuminating 
substances, now makes our parlors luminous with a light brighter 
than the sun, and in the streets, superseding links, cressets, lanterns, 
and street lamps, now makes at midnight our streets bright as at 
noonday ; of the express, by which for a very trifling charge you may 
send a message or a package from Boston to Jerusalem, and be sure 
it will arrive at the stipulated time, and by which orphaned children 
have been sent from San Francisco to their friends in Connecticut ; 
of the railroads crossing the continent and interlacing the country 
in all directions, working a total revolution in the business habits 
of the people ; of the Croton Aqueduct, a structure of which Rome 
in her proudest days might well have been proud ; of friction 
matches, which have taken the place of the tinder-box, which many 
of you never heard of, and most of j^ou never saw, but which a few 
gray-headed men and women have cause to remember by reason 
of having had the skin torn from their knuckles by the unlucky 
collision with the flint or steel ; of the immense influx of gold, fol- 
lowing discoveries of deposits of that metal in California, Austra- 
lia, and the spurs of the Rocky Mountains ; of improvements in 
machinery and manufactures of every kind ; in navigation, in the 
means of warfare and defence, most of them tending greatly to 
promote the comfort, convenience, and permanent good of the 
human family, — all of which tend to make illustrious the century 
which, with us, has just closed, the anniversary of which we are 
assembled to-day to celebrate. Nothing shows the immense in- 
crease of business in this country within the last few years, as 
compared with the state of things in 1768, in a more striking light 



36 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

than the fact that the yearly sales of a single mercantile house in 
New York, that of H. B. Claflin & Co., in the year 1865, as re- 
turned by them to the tax-gatherer, exceeded seventy millions of 
dollars, — a sum no doubt much greater than the yearly sales of 
all the mercantile houses' in all the colonies in the year 1768. ' 

If time permitted, I could find much to say about events in the 
past century which have left permanent impressions, and are mat- 
ters of interest to us of the present day. Wonderful discoveries 
in Australia, in Central Africa, in the catacombs of Egypt, display- 
ing to us vivid pictures of Egyptian life three thousand years ago ; 
the unfolding of mummies, deciphering the hieroglyphics ; the dis- 
covery and laying bare the buried cities of Nineveh and Babylon ; 
the bringing to the light of day the long-hidden historical records 
of those ancient monarchies, engraved in arrow-headed characters, 
which modern ingenuity has succeeded in reading ; the Ameri- 
can Revolution, which commenced a new chapter in the history of 
the world ; the terrible wars of the French Revolution ; the career 
of Napoleon Bonaparte ; the growing up of the colossal empire of 
Russia ; the marvellous increase of the British power in India ; the 
increase, insolence, and overthrow of the slave power in the United 
States ; the emancipation of twenty millions of serfs in Russia, — 
all of these might be embraced in a review of the century just 
closed. 

In matters of belief, and in the habits and customs of domestic 
life, many changes have in the same period taken place, which 
might be worthy of note. Witches, sorcerers, and ghosts have 
disappeared along with wigs, cues, knee-breeches, shoe-buckles, 
and cocked hats, and in their places have come Mesmerism, Mor- 
monism, spiritualism, spirit-rappings, table-turnings, and clair- 
voyance, and changes of dress on the part of ladies, through every 
conceivable variety, culminating at this day in the smallest possi- 
ble " love of a bonnet " contrasted with the most magnificent am- 
plitude of a skirt. But we might point to the dandy gentleman, 
whose period has but barely gone by ; his waist pinched to a wasp- 
like form, decked with a shirt-collar, starch-stiflened, and rising 
above his eyes and ears, — inconvenient and troublesome to the 
wearer as is that useless appendage, the blinders on the bridle, which 
many foolishly continue to keep as a part of the harness head-dress 
of theLi' horses, — topped out with the stove-pipe hat, and termi- 



ADDKESS BY JOHN B. HILL. 



37 



nating with the swallow-tail coat, and conclude rightly that, on the 
score of the ridiculous in personal adornments, the sexes are so 
nearly even that neither can laugh at the other. 

One hundred j^ears ago, nails were made by the blacksmith by 
hand labor, each hammered out singly ; now by machinery nails 
are made by hundreds at a time and shovelled up by the bushel ; 
then, all framing work was done with the pod-auger ; now, most 
people, if they should meet with that tool, would not know what it 
was, or to what use it could be put, and, if told, would still be un- 
able to use it. Then, blood-letting was universally practised by 
all physicians ; now, it is so rare that few have ever witnessed the 
operation ; then, a case of small-pox spread terror through a wide 
region ; now, it is not as much dreaded or considered so danger- 
ous as a case of typhus fever. Training-days and musters, insti- 
tutions of that and the subsequent ages, have gone by forever ; 
then, fish were common and plenty in our streams, and the lordly 
salmon and luscious shad and brisk and bony alewife could be had 
by all for the taking, and constituted a good share of the food of 
the people. Now, a man who spends half a day and catches two 
pounds of trout, the largest not much longer than his finger, thinks 
he has done bravely, and that he is well paid for his labor ; then, 
and for long after, our forests and orchards were filled with birds ; 
the wren and the marten builded about our houses and made 
all cheerful with their songs and busy pursuit of their daily du- 
ties ; the woodpeckers, diligently digging the worms out of the 
trees in our orchards, were fairly entitled to the protection of man, 
but, instead of receiving this reward for their useful labors, they 
have been exposed to a war of extermination on his part, and have 
left us entirely, and in their place, as a just punishment for his 
ingratitude and folly, he is forced to contend single-handed with an 
army of insects, which threatens the total destruction of all the 
fruits of the garden and orchard. 

One of the changes, which we cannot notice without sadness and 
alarm, is the great diminution in the number of children to be 
found among us. School-houses in some districts, in which for- 
merly seats could not be found sufficient to accommodate the 
crowd that flocked to them, can now scarcely muster a dozen schol- 
ars. Then it was not unusual to find in all neighborhoods fami- 
lies in which, going from house to house, you might count in 
each from ten to twelve children ; you will now find the number 



38 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

dwindled away to two or three, and in many houses none are 
found. How sad must be that dwelling in which the prattle of lit- 
tle tongues and the pattering of little feet have never been heard ! 
In this connection, I cannot but advert to the frequency and fa- 
cility of divorces, — a change which indicates an^^thing but a prom- 
ising future for the republic. Marriage is now got up on the sly, 
without publishment of the banns, and is often ended by divorce, 
also got up by one party on the sly, without notice to the other 
party. 

Great changes have also taken place in the religious aspects of 
the community. Public worship was then supported by taxes paid 
b}'- all ; now, b}'- voluntary contribution paid by few ; then, the 
children were trained and drilled in the Westminster Catechism, at 
the fireside, and at times in the church, on set daj^s ; now, the Sun- 
day schools have banished the catechism, with what good result 
remains to be seen. Missions to the heathen are a modern insti- 
tution, now beginning to show good fruit. Then, there were no 
bishops in the land ; now, the three great Episcopal churches, the 
English, the Roman, and the Methodist, number one hundred 
and thirteen archbishops and bishops in the United States. The 
first Methodist conference was held at Philadelphia, in June, 1773. 
It was attended by ten members, among whom was Asbury, after- 
wards bishop. Its total membership reported was eleven hundred 
and sixty. In 1869, this church numbered nine bishops, one hun- 
dred conferences, twenty thousand presiding elders, district and 
local preachers, and a membership of one million five hundred 
thousand. Bishop White, the first bishop of the English Church, 
was consecrated in 1787 ; now that church has a house of bishops 
numbering fifty-two. The first bishop of the Roman Catholic Church 
was consecrated at Baltimore in 1790 ; now that church has seven 
archbishops and forty-five bishops. 

The Universalist and Unitarian denominations were not known 
one hundred years ago, in this country, even b}^ name. 

During the one hundred years just closed this town has passed 
through three periods of actual war. The clouds which foreshad- 
owed the first were gathering and threatening in the horizon at 
the very time when our forefathers met at their first town meeting. 
Their records soon show that they were expecting and preparing 
for the conflict, and when war actually came they were ready to 
meet it. Capt. Benjamin Mann, with his company, marched to 



ADDRESS BY JOHN B. HILL. 



39 



Cambridge, and joined the patriot army, and took part in the bat- 
tle of Bunker Hill, in -which one of his company, Joseph Blood, is 
known to have been killed, and one other, Ebenezer Blood, Jr.:;^ 
was probably killed, as he -was never heard of after that day. His 
name is not found on the roll of the company. Undoubtedly he 
joined it only, on the time of the battle, as a volunteer. The evi- 
dence of his service and fall in the fight rests only on tradition ; 
but that has been uniform and uncontradicted. I mention it as a 
remarkable fact that a sister of this soldier, Mrs. Naomi Nutting, 
at the age of ninety-six years, hale and hearty, is present ^nt\l 
us at this meeting inthe full enjoyment of her faculties.* In the 
" History of Mason," to which I have referred, will be found the 
names of ninety-one inhabitants of the town who served in the ar- 
my or navy in the war of the Revolution, most of them on behalf of 
the town, but some for other towns or places. The number of in- 
habitants of the town was about five hundred ; so that nearly one 
in five of all the inhabitants of the town, including men, women, 
and children, old and young, took part in the strife of the battle- 
fields. It is impossible to make out, with any satisfactory certainty, 
the amount of pecuniary burdens borne by our fathers in that war. 
That their energies and means were taxed to the utmost is appar- 
ent, and that the demands upon them were promptly met is also 
shown by their records ; but the fact that all the sums paid and 
burdens borne are not fully recorded, and the more important fact, 
that after the year 1777 the currency was continually depreciating, 
render it hardly possible now to ascertain what was the true 
value of the sums assessed and paid as taxes. Very many inter- 
esting facts and details in relation to these matters will be found 
in the history referred to. In this war the town was united in the 
prosecution of the contest. There was but one tory in the town, 
and he was soon driven away. His property was confiscated, and 
his land sold by the authorities of the State, and he ended his days 
in Groton, his native place, in poverty and wretchedness. No 
State in the Union was so thoroughly loyal to the patriot cause, 
and so free from toryism, in those days, as the State of New 
Hampshire, and no town in the State was more patriotic and unani- 
mous in prosecuting the war to the end than the town of Mason. 

* Mrs. Nutting here came forward on the stage, and was received with 
hearty cheers. 









40 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

In the war of 1812, a very different state of feeling existed in 
the town. Many thought the war was needless, and that it was 
brought on not by any worthy cause, but by party management. 
The politics of the town, as indicated by the choice of representa- 
tives in the years 1811, 12, 13, 14, and 15, showing a change from 
one party to the other, each successive year prove that the par- 
ties were very evenly balanced. The only call for soldiers from 
the town was made by the Governor, for the defence of Ports- 
mouth. The names of eleven pq^'sons who volunteered, or were 
drafted for this service, appear on page 141 of the History of Ma- 
son. In the report of the Adjutant-General, published in 1868, 
the names of fourteen persons are inserted as having been in the 
service from the town of Mason. The names of those in the last 
list, and not in the first, are Jason Dunster, Jr., Ensign in Cap- 
tain Putnam's compan}' ; William Foster, " absent, sick." In Cap- 
tain Gregg's company, Timothy Darling, Zebulon Jefts, Isaiah 
Robbins, Shebuel Shattuck, and Joses Bucknam. Some of these 
sei'ved as substitutes for those who volunteered or were drafted. 
To these should be added the name of Ebenezer Gilman, who 
served in the campaign, but whose name appears in the list for 
Brookline, as substitute for Samnel Glines, of Brookline. 

The war of the Rebellion found much less unanimity of senti- 
ment among the people of the town than that of the Revolution, 
but still a very decided majority was in favor of supporting the 
" old flag ; " and in this majority was to be reckoned a large num- 
ber of the Democratic party. The purpose to make the burdens 
and expenses of the military service a common charge upon the 
town was very generally resolved upon and acquiesced in. In the 
Appendix will be found a list of those who served in that war, 
either as volunteers or drafted men, or who procured substi- 
tutes or paid commutation. The whole number is one hundred and 
twenty-one. The amount of money paid by the town for bounties, 
and hiring soldiers, and other expenses of that war, is twenty-six 
thousand four hundred and seventy-four dollars and forty-four cents, 
as follows : — 

Bounties, etc., . . $25,675.18 
Expenses, . . 799.26 

#26,474.44 



ADDRESS BY JOHN B. HILL. 41 

I here present a few sketches or pictures of scenes which were 
often to be witnessed here numy years ago, the recollection of 
which now rests only in the memory of a few of the aged among 
us, who must soon join the great company of the departed, and 
leave none behind them to tell these stories of the past. 

And first, a Sunday, such as was then often seen. It is a morn" 
ing of balmy June. Everything is fresh and green. Every tree is 
in full leaf. Native flowers are blooming all around, and all the 
birds are singing in chorus full of joy. The old meeting-house on 
the hill, neatly and deftly swept by the careful hands of Dr. Bar- 
ber's daughters, stands cool and comfortable, doors and windows 
open, filled with sweet and refreshing odors, promising peace and 
quiet, inviting all to enter. In all directions, the roads and the 
by-paths across the fields and pastures ai'e alive with men and 
women, youths and maidens, dressed in their plain and homely 
Sunday's best, humble, grave, and peaceful, approaching the sanc- 
tuary. Some are on horseback, often man, woman, and child upon 
the same steed, but most on foot. Colonel Wood winds up the 
hill, himself and wife in chaise, and his one-horse wagon full to 
overflowing with his woman-kind, and the rest of his numerous 
family following on horseback or on foot. Here comes Lieutenant 
Obadiah Parker, on foot, cane in hand, his ample waistcoat and 
shirt-bosom open to the breeze, and his coat hanging over his arm. 
From the same quarter and on the same road, come families of 
worshippers by the names of Manning, Boynton, Wheeler, Ams- 
den, Parker, Robins, Jefts, Searles, Merriam, Whipple, Warren, 
Davis, Barrett, Snow. From another road, come, by names of 
Whitaker, Flagg, Fay, Lawrence, Woods, Hodgman, Shattuck, Far- 
well, Weston, Barrett, Hosmer, Davis, Wheelock, a long proces- 
sion. From the south, on another road, by the names of Wilson, 
Winship, Swallow, Brown, Blood, Barrett, Smith, Robbins, Web- 
ber. From the east, of Davis, Tarbell, Russell, Smith, Blood, Bar- 
rett, Hill, Elliott, Flagg, Scripture, Gilman, Withington, Hunt, 
Herrick, Withee, Kemp. From the north, of Buss, Tufts, Blood, 
Elliott, Russell, Williams, Shed, Bucknam, Barrett, Boynton, 
Brown, Baldwin, Eaton, Gray, and John Pratt walking alone in the 
middle of the road, talking to himself, his wife foUojving about four 
rods behind him, in the same footsteps. From another branch 
come families by the name of Merriam, Holden, Bachelder, Rob- 
6 



42 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

bins, Hall, Sanders, Blood, Nutting, BuUard, Fish, Williams, Towns- 
end, Richardson. On the village road, come Mann, Ames, Ken- 
dall, Blodgett, Hill, Darling, Felton, Dunster, Adams, Chickering, 
Newell, and a troop more from the village,* led on by Deacon 
Dakin. All are prompt and intent to be in season. The cavalry 
have dismounted and stabled their steeds in the horse-sheds, and 
the crowds of foot and horse men stand collected about the door, 
waiting the coming of the pastor. And now he appears, advanc- 
ing with grave and reverent steps, bearing under his arm a small 
8vo Bible, printed in Edinburgh, with the imprimatur, or rather 
preface, of King James, in which is folded his sermon, fully written 
out, in short hand of his own invention, very neatly in a little book, 
the pages of which are in size about six by four inches.| As he ap- 
proaches, the crowd opens for him to pass, each greeting him as he 
goes by, and in his hand are placed the notes to be read, asking 
prayers, some for those in sickness and affliction, and others of 
thanksgiving for restored health and for mercies received.]: With 
humble mien he enters the sanctuary, and ascends the pulpit stairs. 

* Then called the Harbor. A word of explanation of this term may no 
be deemed out of place. In the early settlement of the country, towns 
were laid out upon the sea- coast, on which in many of them there was a 
bay, cove, or mouth of a river, used as a harbor for vessels. The meeting- 
house, where town meetings were held and public business transacted, was 
at the centre of the town, but it often happened that the "Harbor" was 
the principal if not the only mart of trade in the place. And when, in an 
inland town, a locality on its border became the principal mart of trade, it 
was known by the same name of Harbor, as Mason Harbor, Townsend 
Harbor, Dunstable Harbor. Of these, Townsend Harbor, a station on the 
Shirley and Peterborough Kailroad, is the only one now generally known 
by that name in this vicinity. 

t The engraving here inserted is a fac-simile of a page of one of these 
sermons. 

J These notes for prayer, though presented with the utmost simplicity 
and sincerity, sometimes contained ideas irresistibly ludicrous. An in- 
stance is the following, given me by an esteemed friend : A friend, a cler- 
gyman of the neighborhoad, handed to me a note, which had the Sunday 
before been put into his hands, in a pulpit, as a matter to be prayed for in 
the regular service of a congregation not far in the interior, as follows 
— it was, perhaps, forty years ago : — 

" Josiah and wife gratefully acknowledge the death of a sister-in 

law to be for their good. He also asks your prayers for further needed 
mercies — his wife being sick." 



ADDRESS BY JOHN B. HILL. 43 

All immediately enter and take their seats, and the house is filled 
with an audience of devout and humble worshippers, more in num- 
ber than, as I judge, there now assemble in the four congre- 
gations which now meet for worship in the town. As soon as quiet 
is restored from the noise of entering footsteps, the town clerk, 
John Blodgett, rises in his seat, in his pew in the front gallery, 
and cries or publishes the intentions of marriage of such as have 
desired him so to do. After invocation, the pastor reads from the 
sacred volume, and then gives out and reads the psalm or hymn. 
On this occasion let it be the sixty-third psalm of Watts : " Early, 
my God, without delay," etc. Benjamin Kendall, the leader, or 
quirister as he was called, names the tune ; the choir rise ; he gives 
a toot on his pitch-pipe, and off they go with that fine old fuguing 
tune, Montgomery. This is what is called a double tune, requir- 
ing two verses to fill the music. The second verse, — 

" So pilgrims on the scorching sand, 
Beneath a burning sky, 
Long for a cooling stream at hand, 
For they must drink or die," 

embraced the fuguing part, which was upon the words, " Long for a 
cooling (repeated three times) stream at hand." These words, in 
the broad pronunciation of that day, sounded in my childhood's 
ears, Long Father Cooling, and suggested to my inexperienced 
mind that the Pilgrims were calling upon some tall old gentleman 
by the name of Cooling, to show them the way to the water. The 
singing closed, the notes asking for prayers were then read, and the 
prayer followed. It was a sincere outpouring of the heart, in the 
spirit of devotion. There was no long statement of what God had 
done, or ought to do ; no long story told to the Deity of what had 
happened ; no elaborate setting forth of doctrinal points, nor a ser- 
mon or dissertation under the guise of a prayer. The case of all 
who had asked prayers was presented with petitions or thanksgiv- 
ings appropriate to each one. 

The prayer ended, the second singing followed, for which the 
one hundred and twenty-first psalm of Watts is given out, and the 
tune, is another charming fugue found in the old books, — under the 
name of Delight, to which the words of the third and fourth verses 
are peculiarly well fitted and appropriate : — 



44 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

" No burning heats by day, " Hast thou not given thy word, 

Nor blasts of evening air, To save my soul from death? 

Shall take my health away, And I can trust my Lord 

If God be with me there : To keep my mortal breath. 

Thou art my sun, I'll go and come' 

And thou my shade, Nor fear to die, 

To guard my head Till from on high 

By night or noon. Thou call me home." 

Then followed the sermon, the text selected for which was always 
one that had a meaning, and presented a message, or called for a 
duty, suitable to the people and the times. The sermon was an ex- 
position of the text ; in that respect diftering from many which we 
hear in these days, in which it is difficult to trace any connection 
between them. Sometimes, perhaps, with reason, we thought the 
sermon long. The sermon ended, a short prayer and benediction 
followed with the final amen, at which signal, as at a word of com- 
mand, down fall all the seats with a bang, that, through the open 
doors and windows in a clear da}', might be heard nearly half a 
mile off. The pews were furnished with seats hung on hinges, 
which were turned up when the congregation rose and stood up for 
prayer, the irreverent mode of sitting bolt-upright during the exer- 
cise not yet having been introduced. Then there was a rush from 
the galleries and the porches by those whose exit was by those 
doors ; but those in the body of the house, who were to go out at 
the front door, stood, the patriarch of the household at the open 
pew-door, hat in hand, till the pastor descended the pulpit-stairs, 
and approached and passed the pew-door ; then each pew, in order, 
poured out its occupants to follow his footsteps. Thus ended the 
forenoon services. Those of the afternoon were so nearly a repe- 
tition of the same order of proceedings that the}^ need not be re- 
hearsed. 

Nothing brought the pastor so near to his people as the sad ser- 
vice for the burial of the dead. The dead is prepared for the 
grave ; the mourners are assembled, and sympathizing neighbors 
and friends are gathered at and around the desolated dwelling. 
Solemn as the scenes around him is the pastor's countenance ; full 
of sympathy with the afflicted is the tone of his voice ; full of con- 
solation and hopefulness, or of sadness and warning, are his words, 
as the occasion permitted or required, A tender and affectionate 
address is made, suited to the condition of the afflicted family and 



ADDRESS BY JOHN B. HILL. 45 

the circumstances of the case. When the funeral services were 
closed, and preparation were making to move to the grave, that 
fiend, who does more than half the mischief that is done in the 
world, is seen to step in. It was understood and believed in those 
days that rum was a friend. His aid was involved on all occasions. 
He might be misused, and then matters would go wrong. Mistake 
or over-doing was the ready excuse, and thus this simple people 
permitted an " enemy to steal away their brains." On all funeral 
occasions toddy must be mixed and administered to all the mourn- 
ers and to all their gathered friends ; but especial provision in that 
line must be made for the bearers. There was no hearse in those 
days, and the bearers were literally such. They lifted the bier 
upon which the coffin was laid upon their shoulders, and bore it in 
that manner, even from the most remote habitation in the hamlet, 
to the grave-yard. To strengthen themselves for this sad task they 
must take a strong drink, and sometimes, I almost dread to say, it 
proved too strong. Then, mostly on foot, the funeral train would 
slowly wind its way over the hills and along the valleys, with deep 
and solemn silence, till the grave was reached ; and even then no 
word was uttered, — the dead was silently laid in his last resting- 
place, and the mournful train turned away sadly to retrace their 
steps to the desolated home. 

The annual Thanksgiving was then the one great festival 
of the year. It had not been intruded upon in the slightest de- 
gree by Christmas. That was then hardly known by name, and 
was observed only by here and there a rare sample of what were 
thought by themselves, and a few others, to be tip-top gentry. 
Thanksgiving came at a season when the labors of the year were 
over. The barns, garners, cellars, and larders were filled with the 
abundance of the year, and a season of leisure was presented be- 
tween the close of the summer and autumn labor and the com- 
mencement of winter work, which our fathers thought it worth 
while heartily to enjoy. The day was to be the great feast-day of 
tlie year, and the preparations therefor generally began about a 
week in advance of the day. Then there was a great slaughter of 
beeves, porkers, geese, turkeys, and other fowls ; but tlie great 
business in-doors of the week preceding was the making of pies, 
which were made and piled up in pyramids and stacks, — especially 
of mince pies, — enough to last all winter. Another important prep- 



46 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

aration for the festival devolved upon the singing- choir. A meet- 
ing was called, at which an anthem was selected, to be performed 
as a part of the public worship of the day. It was one of the old- 
fashioned solid pieces, in which full scope could be given to all the 
musical talent of the body, and to which the utmost latitude was 
given for all the noise the singing gallery could make, and in 
which there would be no danger of overdoing. Sundry meetings 
were held for practice, so that every one should be ready and 
prompt in his part. These meetings were held in the evenings, 
which were generally bright with moonlight, and were much en- 
joyed by the young folks, offering fine opportunities for flirtings, 
often ending in serious courtships, to be followed up in the next 
year's crop of weddings. 

The day comes. The labor of preparing the dinner calls for the 
services of so many of the women that the audience to listen to 
the pastor's discourse is mostly composed of men. In the dis- 
course is given a general review of the interesting incidents in the 
history of the town for the past year, stating in particular the num- 
ber of marriages and of deaths within the period. The sermon 
ended, the anthem sung, and the meeting dismissed, all hurry 
home ; but on the way many of the " grave and reverend seigniors," 
with hasty steps, enter into the tavern bar-room to take their modi- 
cum of that king of all tipples, flip. They find the landlord ready 
with his pots of beer at hand, a lively fire glowing with coals on his 
ample hearth, in which lies a row of loggerheads, heated to redness, 
with which to give the mixture of beer, rum, and sugar its proper 
cooking. Arrived at home, then follows the dinner, to which all 
the members of the family, old and j^oung, near and distant, that 
can be assembled, are gathered. 

The table is broadly spread, and on it are placed roast beef, 
spare-rib, roast turkey, geese, and chickens, and a bountiful sup- 
ply of boiled meats, chickens, and vegetables is heaped upon huge 
pewter platters. The enormous brick oven turns out its store of 
pies and cakes and puddings, — Indian puddings, plum puddings, 
and rice puddings, — puddings that are puddings ; that when 
turned out of the pots will stand up and face the company, retain- 
ing their shape till demolished by the consumers, and not, as is the 
fashion with puddings in these degenerate days, fall flat and squat 
upon the dish, and spread themselves to little purpose. A relay of 



ADDRESS BY JOHN B, HILL. 



47 



pies, of all sorts aud sizes, is ready at hand to fill up any gaps that 
may possibl3^ be found in the array of viands. 

But some may ask, Why all this profusion and waste? I an- 
swer, there was no waste, for at that season of the year the cold 
weather, which had free access to the open, airy pantries of our 
fathers, would preserve all that was left of the feast till there 
was ample time to put it all to use. Besides, many a poor widow's 
heart was cheered with a portion of the remains, that was highly 
acceptable to the mouths of her hungry children. 

The evening of the day was spent in merry-making by the young 
people, and by the elders in social chats in family gatherings at 
neighboring houses. 

There was one other custom of those days, which will never be 
seen again in this place, the recollection of which will soon pass 
away with the demise of a few of the aged among us. It was the 
annual wood-hauling to supply the pastor's wood-pile for the year. 
On a day agreed upon and arranged by themselves, about Christ- 
mas or New Year's, the farmers and their sons, with axes, teams and 
sleds, at an early hour of the day, made their way into his wood- 
lot. Soon was heard the crash of the fall of huge trees yielding 
to the sturdy blows of the axe-men. These were speedily cut into 
sled-lengths, and loaded upon the sleds, and a long procession of 
teams started for the house. These teams were kept going and 
returning till nightfall, piling at his doors a heap like a mountain, 
enough to supply the roaring fires of the large open fire-place, the 
other fires, aud the big oven, called into requisition once or twice 
a week, for the full year. In the mean time, early in the forenoon, 
could be seen another procession, tending towards the house, com- 
posed of the grandfathers and the more elderly fathers of the par- 
ish, with their wives and daughters, and some precious old maids, 
in sleighs, bringing with them, some, nice roasters of beef, others, 
legs and hams of pork, chickens, turke3's, and geese, all ready for 
the spit. After greetings, the men took charge of the fires, or 
joined their neighbors in the woods ; the women donned their 
checked aprons, and the work of preparation for the feast com- 
menced. Roaring fires were built on the hearth and in the oven, 
and busy fingers were at work on puddings and pies, the huge iron 
pot was swung upon the crane, filled to repletion with articles to 
be boiled, and the roastings were arranged with proper appara- 



48 CESTEN^^AL CELEBRATIOy. 

tiis about the fires ; and by the time that the iveary wood-choppers 
and the weaiy teams and teamsters came up, about sunset, the 
tables were spread, and a feast was prepared which even an epi- 
cure might enjoy, and while the oxen took their lunch of sweet 
hay from the pastor's mow, the men taking first a heai'ty drink of 
flip, after '* a grace as lang's my arm," " the feast ate merrily, 
merrily ; " which ended, all wended their several wajs home with the 
heart-cheering reflection that they had done a good deed. 

Thus far we have been looking at. the century that is past. 
Let us turn our thoughts for a brief space to that which is before 
us, upon which we have just now entered. To set forth what has 
been is the province of the historian. He often finds it ditficult to 
discover and state, with truth and certainty, the facts that have 
taken place, in their proper light and bearing. To predict the 
futm-e belongs to the prophet. His task is more difficult still, if 
he is left to depend on human appliances and means alone. I am 
not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, and I shall not attempt to 
lift the veil of the future, and show you a picture of what is to 
come ; but I may hazard a few conjectmres as to what may take 
place within the next one hundred years, with the more freedom, 
since I may rest assured, that if, at the next centennial celebration 
it shall appear that my conjectures are mere empty dreams, I shall 
not be there to hear reproach for my presumption, or to feel 
mortification for the failure of my predictions. 

The century commenced when the English settlements in what is 
now the United States extended along the Atlantic coast from the 
mouth of the Penobscot River to the southern limits of Georgia. — 
thinly scattered colonies, reaching back from the coast into the 
country scarcely one hundred miles . The population of all the 
colonies was at that time less than two million five hundred 
thousand, about half of what is probably now that of the State of 
Xew York. The population of Xew Hampshire was about fifty- 
two thousand seven hundred ; that of this town two hundred and 
seventy-eight. Those feeble, disconnected colonies depended on 
a government three thousand miles away. The French, at an 
early period, had possession of Canada and of all the country east 
of Maine, They had extended their posts along the lakes and 
down the Mississippi to its mouth, thus completely encircling the 
colonies, and cutting them oti from any considerable extension 



ADDRESS BY JOHN B. HILL. 49 

of their western limits. Althougii by the peace of 1763 these 
barriers were removed, no progress had been made in 1768 in 
pushing our settlements beyond the Ohio. Now the century 
closes upon a united people, in number between thirty-five and 
forty millions, masffers of themselves and of a territory extending 
upon the Atlantic coast from New Brunswick to Mexico, reaching 
across the continent to the Pacific Ocean, and upon that 
ocean from the southern limits of California, excepting a fragment 
of British territory interposed, to the North Pole. What more 
probable than that the coming century will see our dominion 
embracing the whole continent of North America, with the adjacent 
islands, and our people not only masters of themselves, but, for all 
practical purposes, masters of the world? Public and private 
virtue, coupled with intelligence, will insure prosperity and 
national unity, and if these remain, our flag will wave over the 
continent and float over both oceans, and there will be no power 
with which, in a just cause, we may not readily cope. With a 
population of one hundred and fifty millions, more likely two 
hundred millions ; with naval armaments upon both the Atlantic 
and Pacific Oceans, each a match for the united navies of the 
world, — nothing in the nature of things can prevent the consumma- 
tion of national greatness which I have indicated. But there is loom- 
ing up in prospect tlie frightful image of corruption, in public 
servants, in legislative halls, in judicial stations, in the popular 
elections, and in the administration of municipal. State, and 
national officers, which, unless speedily checked and removed, 
threatens the destruction of public integritj', liberty, and law. 
When these are gone, the body politic must waste as if consumed 
by an internal cancer, which certainly and surely will eat out and 
destroy the national life. But it is not in numbers alone that 
national greatness consists ; we must ask not only how many they 
are, but what can they do? The state of mind, sluggish or active, 
limits national power. In this respect great and wonderful have 
been the results of inventive genius in the past century in this 
country, in its appliances to all the walks of life, and there are no 
signs of its exhaustion or running dry.* Who one hundred years 

* The business of the Patent Office is the criterion of the activity of the 
inventive mind. Its wonderful increase in this country is shown by the 

7 



50 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

ago could have foretold the invention of the spinning-jenny, 
invented in 1769, the power-loom, the machinery for the manu- 
facturing of cotton and woollen goods, the application of steam to 
work such machinery, the cotton-gin, the mowing, reaping, and 
threshing machines, without which it would ilbw be impossible to 
reap our fields and prepare our harvests for market ; iron ships, 
driven by steam, without the aid and against the force of tuind and 
tide; railroads which bind continents together ; telegraphs which 
annihilate time and space ; stereotype printing and cylinder 
presses, which render the issuing from one office half a million of 
newspapers every week, a task easily accomplished ; monitors to 
protect our harbors ; sewing-machines ; gang-saws which take in a 
whole tree, it may be one hundred feet long, and at one going 
through cuts it up bodily, and at once into boards ; and although 
small matters in appearance, not least in usefulness, because of 
universal use, friction matches and shoe-pegs, made by the 
million and by the bushel. All these tend to relieve the human 
muscle from the yoke of labor, and to add to the comfort and 
convenience of domestic life. Inventions and discoveries, as 
wonderful and important as any of these, may be, and undoubtedly 
will be, the gains and glories of the coming centur3\ Two 
important factors in the solution of the problem of the future will 
be associated capital in the form of railroads, manufacturing 
corporations, and banks ; and associated poverty and labor in the 
form of co-operative societies. Here I may remark, that our town 
has the honor of having been the birthplace of two men, who, by 
their inventive genius and skill in adapting it to manufacturing 
purposes, have obtained a world-wide celebrity. Jonas Chickering, 
who established the house of Chickering & Sons, whose pianos are 
known, wherever in, or even out of, Christendom there is any 
music, was a native of this town; and Walter A. Wood, the 
founder of the house of Walter A. Wood & Co., whose mowing- 
machines totally and entirely distanced all competitors at the 
great Paris Exposition, was born in this town. The fathers of 
each, Abner Chickering and Aaron Wood, were blacksmiths, and 
were patterns of industry in hammering at the anvil. 

statement, that in 1847 the number of patents issued was five hundred aud 
seventy-two ; in 1869, thirteen thousand nine hundred aud eighty-six. 



ADDRESS BY JOHN B. HILL. 51 

But let us look, for a few moments, at matters that more 
immediately concern us all. Many think that New England has 
seen its best days, and that, signs of decadence, speedily to be 
manifested, are discernible. I am not of that number. The 
activity, energy, enterprise, and intelligence of her people forbid 
such a result. All history shows that a people dwelling upon the 
sea-board, in a temperate climate, have always been able to hold 
their own against the competition of dwellers inland. Of the 
continued manufacturing and commercial prosperity of New 
England none but croakers doubt. But the alarm is sounded by 
those, who, upon a hasty survey, have pronounced its agricultural 
prosperity not alone to be waning, but gone. This conclusion seems 
to me hasty, if confined to the present time, and utterly false as a 
prediction of the future. There never was a time when a greater 
amount of what is used for the sustenance of men, and of 
marketable articles, was produced in this town than at present. 
The fields of skilful cultivators show no signs of exhaustion, and 
the number of such is every year increasing. The agricultural 
press is doing a great work in stimulating and encouraging 
efibrts in this direction. There is not a farm in town that has not 
on it one acre at least, and many have more than one, which 
produces a crop as remunerating to the owner as an average acre 
of the boasted prairie country. On all these farms such acres can 
be increased, — in most cases largely increased, — and the coming 
century will see the number of such acres multiplied to an extent 
which would now be pronounced incredible. In this connection, it 
is worth while to mention that quarries of granite have recently 
been open and worked in this town, lying contiguous to the 
railroad, which are said to be not surpassed in quality by any in 
New England, and to be inexhaustible in quantity, promising in 
the future abundant employment at remunerating prices. There 
is much territory which is apparently exhausted, and on which 
cultivation should not be attempted ; but this land is far from 
being useless or worthless. About one third of our land, includino- 
that just described, should be devoted to wood. All the hill-tops 
and hill-sides which are too rough for cultivation, and on which 
the cattle find but scanty herbage, should be given up to the 
forest. I have travelled in many States, and have had many 
opportunities of observation and knowledge in that line, and can 



52 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

say that in no part of our country does the forest assert its right 
to live, with so persistent and determined a vigor, as upon our 
hills. It cannot be subdued. Horace says, that " if you drive 
out nature with a fork, it will come back in spite of you." 

The axe, the fire, and the plough will not subdue our forests with- 
out the most continued eflbrts. Let us, then, follow the plain in- 
dications of nature, and permit the forests to clothe all our rocky 
hill-sides. Such lands, now growing up to 3'oung wood, with 
proper usage will yield a constant revenue, equal to that reaped 
from most of the otlier acres of the farm, and at the same time 
will increase in value at a ratio that would be satisfactory to 
the most greedy monej'-lender. This course pursued will be at- 
tended with another great and blessed result. It will not only 
preserve our wasted and waning rivers and streams, but in time 
restore them, in a good degree, to their original and native vol- 
ume, and will aid much, with other proper efforts in that direction, 
to re-stock our rivers, streams, ponds, and lakes, with the fish, 
salmon, shad, and alewives, that before the dams were built, and 
the forests swept awaj'^, were so abundant in all our waters. 

Upon the topic of the agricultural future of New England, I 
could say much ; but want of time will not permit me to enlarge. 
I will, however, state that, in the j^ear 1856, there was published in 
the " New England Farmer," a series of articles, written evidently 
by a man of education and sound sense, in which the former and 
present agricultural condition of England was compared, county 
by count}'^, every one of which was gone over and carefully exam- 
ined ; and he expressed it to be his deliberate judgment that the 
original agricultural capacity of England was not superior to that 
of New England ; that one hundred years ago the condition of ag- 
riculture in England was little, if in anj^ degree, superior to that 
of New England at the present day ; and he went on to show that 
the present high and flourishing state of agriculture in England 
was brought about and is wholly dependent upon the raising and 
feeding of cattle, of course including sheep. With the introduc- 
tion, or rather production, of better breeds of animals, and the 
more common-sense and scientific modes of feeding and preparing 
them for the market, the agricultural interest there began its pros- 
perous career, which has gone on increasing to the present daj'. 
The eff'ect was produced by so feeding tlic cattle that, at eighteen 



ADDRESS BY JOHN B. HILL. 53 

months and two years old, the}'^ would weigh more and bring a 
higher price in the market than under the old system they would 
weigh and produce at the age of five and six years, so that in fact 
the expense of keeping the cattle two or three years was saved to 
the owner. Again, the new mode of feeding added vastly to the 
quantity and value of the manure, which is to the farmer what his 
cash capital is to the merchant. 

" When a heavy stock is kept on any farm, and fed in a thoi'- 
oughly liberal way, with the very best of everything, the immense 
quantity of rich manure will feed the land in a corresponding way, 
and bring the whole farm into such a high condition that double 
and triple crops can be grown. Thus the profits will go on in- 
creasing. . . . Any man having cattle, and being afraid to feed 
them, had best give up agricultural pursuits at once. . . . High 
feeding is of the utmost importance, to the live stock and to the 
land ; and any one, no matter who, having too faint a heart to carry 
out the programme, must succumb and end his career in disap- 
pointment."* 

In England, by the improved agriculture above referred to, the 
average crop of wheat has been increased from about eight bushels 
to nearly forty bushels to the acre, and about the same ratio of in- 
crease will be found in most of the other pi'oductions of the soil. 
Such crops are not produced without a liberal expenditure of means 
to put the land into proper order, and of manures, and of cultiva- 
tion for the crops. There is no State of New England in which 
farms cannot be found managed with results as profitable to the 
owners as the average of farms in England. All that is wanted to 
bring the agriculture of New England up to the standard of that 
of England is capital and skill, both of which the English farmers 
possess in an eminent degree, and both of which our farmers, in 
general, sadly lack. There is nothing in the climate or soil that 
forbids success. An acre of Indian corn, upon an acre of land as 
well prepared for the crop as the English farmer prepares his for 
wheat, will produce with us a crop as valuable as the English far- 
mer's crop of wheat, and will cost no more in cultivation. 

The great difference between the English and American farmer 
is this : The American farmer expends his whole capital, and some- 

♦ Country Gentleman. 



54 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

times runs deeply in debt, for the purchase of a farm, and has noth- 
ing left in the way of means wherewith to carry it on successfully, 
and consequently suffers great embarrassments for want of such 
means, all of which renders his efforts, in a great measure, abor- 
tive ; and yet some, by perseverance and good luck, will succeed 
in this up-hill road. On the other hand, the English farmer buys 
no land. He reserves all his capital to furnish means to carry on 
his farm, for which he pays a rent to the owner, and depends on 
the proceeds of the farm for means to pay the rents and add to his 
capital ; and in this mode, all, with few exceptions, succeed to 
their heart's content. There is nowhere to be seen a more hearty, 
cheerful, contented individual than the English farmer. Now, why 
should not the same mode be practised in New England ? In every 
New England State there are thousands of farms in good condition 
as to lands, houses, farm-buildings, and situation, where schools, 
churches, and roads are all ready for use, left in the hands of old 
men whose sons have gone to seek employment in the cities, or to 
the mines or prairies, who would be glad to rent their farms to good, 
faithful men, for a share of the crops, or for a money rent. Why, 
then, should not our young men adopt the English system, and use 
their capital, not in buying land, but to furnish the means to carry 
on a farm to profit, for so many years that they shall be able to 
buy and stock a good farm for themselves? " Earn more than you 
spend, is a rule short and simple. It is hard for a young man to 
follow it, but it leads to independence. Good judgment, industry, 
economy, and perseverance are sure to end in wealth. The place 
makes little difference. While many start for the great West, 
others will not go out of the sound of the bells of the city, and 
will make as much money from a patch that you can throw a stone 
across, as a Pike's Peak colonist will on his square mile. There 
is everything in the man, nothing in the chance; for the right kind 
of man makes his own chance." * 

It is often said of an unsuccessful farmer that he has too much 
land. It is never said of a successful farmer. The true state of 
the case is admirably set forth by Horace Greeley, in these words : 
" He who has but fifty acres has too much if he lets part of his 
land lie idle and unproductive, for lack of team or hands to till it 

* New York Tribuue. 



ADDRESS BY JOHN B. HILL. 66 

efficiently ; while he who has a thousand acres has none too much, 
if he has the means and talents wherewith to make the best of it 
all." 

Four hundred years ago, Holland was nothing but heaps of sand- 
hills, thrown up by the booming of the waves of the North Sea, in 
the midst of bogs, liable to the overflows of rivers and of the 
ocean ; a more uupropitious spot and condition could not be found 
on which to attempt to build up a flourishing community. To dam 
out the ocean and the waters of the rivers was the only mode by 
which the country could be made inhabitable. To do this, it was 
necessary to bring from Norway whole forests of trees, and mil- 
lions of tons of rocks, — no trees nor rocks being found within its 
bounds fit for such purposes ; and yet the sluggish Dutch, as we 
are sometimes ready to style them, made that unpropitious and in- 
hospitable mud-bank the most flourishing agricultural country in 
the world. And the foundation of its agricultural prosperity rests 
wholly upon its herds of cattle.. The richest and choicest beef and 
butter and cheese go, in Dutch ships, to the London market, 
from pastures actually lower than the surface of the ocean, and 
from which the water is constantly pumped out by machinery, 
moved by immense wind-mills.* 

The inhabitants of Holland are stated to be . . 3,699,744 

Their cattle, iucluding horses, sheep, and swine, , 3,523,307 
The inhabitants of Mason number about . 2,000 

Their cattle, horses, sheep, and swine, about 1,200 

Let our people increase their cattle to the number of, say 1891, 
which is near the Dutch standard, and feed them and care for them 

* " In every branch of human industry, these republicans took the lead. 
On .that scrap of solid ground, rescued by human energy from the ocean, 
were the most fertile pastures in the world. On those pastures grazed the 
most famous cattle in the world. An ox often weighed more than two 
thousand pounds. The cows produced two and three calves at a time, the 
sheep four and five lambs. In a single village, four thousand kine were 
counted. Butter and cheese were exported, to the annual value of a mil- 
lion, and salted provisions to an incredible extent. The farmers were in- 
dustrious, thriving, and independent. It is an amusing illustration of the 
agricultural thrift and republican simplicity of this people, that, on one 
occasion, a farmer proposed to Prince Maurice that he should marry his 
daughter, promising her a dowry of one hundred thousand florins." — Mot- 
ley, United Netherlands, "Vol. iv., p. 652. 



56 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

as carefully and skilfully as they feed and care for theirs, and the 
agricultural wealth of the town will at once be increased more than 
one hundred per cent. Not only so, but the ratio of increase will 
be constantly advancing. The more cattle the more manure ; the 
more manure the greater and better crops, and thus the land will 
be enriched, and will enrich its owners. But without liberal feed- 
ing, especially of young animals, no progress can be made. A calf 
cannot be cheated out of a pint of milk. He keeps an accurate 
account with you, and, at the end of the year, you will find your- 
self charged in the balance-sheet with every scanty meal, and every 
case of neglect and ill-usage with which he has been served. It 
should be borne in mind that agriculture is by no means the sole 
employment of the people of Holland. A large share of their en- 
ergies is devoted to the business of commerce, manufactures, and 
fisheries. The same is true of the people of New England. In 
each a happy diversity of employments tends to individual well- 
being and to national prosperity. 

The ratio of neat or horned cattle in the United States, by the 
census of each of the years 1840, 1850, and 1860, was eighty per 
cent., not varying one per cent, from that number in either census ; 
that is, there were eighty cattle for each one hundred people in the 
United States. Of course some States had more and some less 
than that number. That average would require the number of neat 
cattle for this town to be about sixteen hundred. It is about seven 
hundred and sixty-one. The Dutch average would require the 
number, including horses, sheep, and swine, to be about eighteen 
hundred and ninety-one. It is about twelve hundred and ninety. 
Let it be increased to the standard of the census, or to the Dutch 
standard in numbers, and to the Dutch or English standard in care 
and feeding ; and with our facilities for marketing our agricultural 
and horticultural productions, our prosperity is insured for all time. 
Shall our next anniversary witness this result? Farmers, the an- 
swer rests with you. 

Note. — For many of the facts, and sometimes for the language in 
which they are stated, I am indebted to the " History of New York City," 
by William L. Stone. I take this mode of acknowledgment, rather than 
to encumber the page with marks of quotation and foot-notes. 



POEM. 

BY REV. EDWIN R. HODGMAN. 



Two travelers o'er the Alpine cliffs, 

Slow toiling up from height to height, 
Through snow, wind- whirled, in massive drifts, 

Sm-veyed with wonder and delight 
The grandeur of the mountain-pass, 

The poised and threatening avalanche. 
The towering crags, the deep crevasse, 

The rugged ice-wall, cold and stanch. 
Till, through a vista stretching far, 

In clear perspective 'gainst the sky, — 
As when at night some brilliant star. 

Through breaking clouds, bursts on the eye, ■ 
They saw revealed a sight most rare : 

Carved on the pure and virgin snow. 
In profile wrought unique and fair, 

With heavenward look as if to show 
Whence all its grace and brightness flowed. 

Appeared a perfect human face. 
And there in mellow sunlight glowed. 

No painter's hand hath skill to trace 
A portrait so divinely sweet, 

So nobly grand, so simply true, 
In eveiy feature all complete, 

Beyond what mortal art can do. 
'Twas woman's likeness, pure, refined. 

Tender, contemplative, serene, — 
A soul by Nature's hand enshrined, 

A human face with angel's mien. 
This beauteous form, the snow-wraith's child. 

Rested in statue-like repose, 
And seemed a spirit undefiled, 
Pure as the bed from which it rose. 



58 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Spellbound the travelers stood ; for speech 

Is tame and worthless at such time 
When the full soul essays to reach 

A thing of beauty so sublime. 
Then one, an artist, strove to make 

A picture of that face so rare. 
To grasp its loveliness and take 

True likeness of the snow-child there. 
A hundred times his jDencil drew 

An image, yet so. poor, so faint, 
So all unlike the thing he knew, 

That in despair, with woful plaint, 
He dropi^ed his work ; then sought again 

To catch and trace the subtle line. 
The look intent, — 'twas all in vain; 

The angel baffled his design. 
There in mute ecstasy he stood ; 

The ice-fields all around him gleamed. 
The hoary peaks seemed praising God, 

And over all a glory streamed. 
But first and chief in that glad hour. 

Was that sweet face to heaven inclined. 
Whose wondrous contour foiled his power, — 

Soul of the sunshine and the wind ! 

So to the gaze of every man 

Whose heart a true ambition fires, 
Whose life fulfils some noble jDlan, 

And after truth and right aspires, 
A vision comes of something grand, 

And wakens every latent power. 
The prize ajipears, and his own hand 

Must grasp it as his lawful dower. 
He climbs the mount and sees afar 

The thing he longs for and must gain. 
From this no toil, no fate shall bar ; 

He feels the strife in every vein. 
And sti'ife means action, sturdy, i-eal ; 

The aim is high, the motive strong. 
And he must reach his own ideal. 

But few, indeed, of all the throng 
Of kingly souls who seek a crown. 

Here find the glory they would win. 
Here gain the coveted renown, 

Or satisfy the thirst within. 



rOEM. 

When this new world, the Occident, 

Loomed up to men across the wave, 
Then hither came, with just intent, 

The good and true, the pure and brave. 
They fled from stern oppression's rule, 

From bigotry and tyranny, 
From the mad rage of sect and school, 

To be in these wild regions free, — 
Fi'ee as the mountain breeze that wafts 

The light and fleecy cloud along ; 
Free as the limpid brook that laughs 

And sings the winsome little song. 
The old world cast them out with \ate. 

The new world took them in with love. 
And here they built a Christian State, 

With faith and hope in God above. 
Hard was the labor, fierce the strife. 

That with heroic valor brought 
Our great Republic into life, 

Our nation's glorious birthright bought 
With price untold, — freedom to think. 

To dare, and do. No cowards they 
From toil or danger e'er to shrink ; 

They kept their faith and won the day. 

One hundred years ago, these hills 

Responded to the piercing cry 
Of wolf or wild-cat ; at these rills 

Drank trembling fawns, so coy and shy ; 
Forests with thick, umbrageous gloom 

SjH-ead far and wide ; wild fruits matured 
Unplucked by man ; the choice perfume 

Of flowers no human foot allured ; 
The hawk and raven built their nest 

Unscared ; the timid fish, uncaught. 
Swam the deep pools ; and nature, dressed 

In pristine garb, with grace untaught. 
Looked queenly in the eye of heaven. 

Let fancy di'aw the picture then, 
Since to her touch such skill is given : 

Along each winding stream and glen, 
Stretch groves of pale, deciduous trees ; 

The slopes are crowned with evergreen; 



59 



60 CENTENNIAL CELEBKATION. 

No woodman's axe hath humbled these ; 

No Vandal's touch hath marred the scene. 
The circling hills in order stand, 

The crown is on Monadnoc's brow, 
And, rippling over rock and sand. 

Our gentle river floweth now 
Untrammeled to the boundless sea. 

Here is primeval solitude. 
Behold, what sweet simplicity ! 

See nature in her loveliest mood ! 

Not from the court or council-hall 

Not from the home of wealth and pride, 
From titled ranks, or great, or small, 

With greed of gain imsatisfied, 
Came they who first a pathway cleared 

Through the wide forest, thick and drear, 
Built their rude cabins, and upreared 

A house for Him whom all revere. 
Strong, hardy men, with instincts true 

Laid the foundations of the town ; 
They kept a noble end in view. 

And worked for Ood, not for renown. 

Debtors to no man's lore or skill, 

They bore the stress of constant toil ; 
With patience and unconquered will 

They strove to make a stubborn soil 
Pay tribute to unwearying care. 

Unlearned they were, uncouth and rough. 
But men of faith and men of prayer ; 

Men fashioned of the sternest stuff. 
Were they not heroes, though their names 

Are blazoned not on martial rolls ? 
True men, whose sterling virtue shames 

The meanness of some modern souls ? 

Of Lawrence, Parker, Mann, and Hall, 
Speak we to-day with reverence due ; 

Of Barrett, Dakin, Elliott, all — 
•' They builded better than they Jcnew.''^ 



POEM. 61 



These and their compeei's passed away ; 

But on, with varying fortune, ran 
The bright succession, till to-day 

Our mother boasts a worthy clan 
Of sons and daughters, native born. 

Or else adopted, re-baptized, 
Ood-given, her annals to adorn. 

With fondness cherished, loved, and prized. 

See where with faith and trust combined 

She rears memorials of her dead : 
Earth holds their dust with love enshrined. 

But they are gone, — ah, whither fled ? 
Can those we knew all, all unwept, 

Unhonored or forgotten lie ? 
O loved ones ! peacefully yeVe slept 

Since we, who saw you droop and die, 
In our true hearts embalmed you, gave, 

With pain and sorrow all unspoken. 
Your flower-strown bodies to the grave, 

And mourned the ties so rudely broken. 

With filial love we turn again 

To Nature's shrine and question her : 
What treasures in your fair domain ? 

What gift for lowly worshiper ? 
Within your broad and teeming breast, 

Hidden for ages all unknown, 
What gems unquarried darkly rest ? 

What diamond or what precious stone ? 
What rai-e and luscious fruits are found ? 

What trees in strange luxuriance grow ? 
Do myrrh and frankincense abound ? 

Or milk and liquid honey flow ? 

And this the answer she returns : 

Not here doth endless summer reign ; 
Nor here the orient splendor burns, 

Nor heaven rains manna on the plain ; 
Here are no mines of native gold, 

No tropic fruits, no incense sweet ; 
But meekly here the flowers unfold. 

And spread their petals at your feet. 



62 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

And hast thou these, O sylvan maid ? 

What flowers here scent the morning hom-s, 
And blush along the opening glade ? 

Conduct us to your floral bowers, 
And to our gladdened eyes disclose 

These nurslings of the dew and sky. 

Then she aside her mantle throws, 
And in sweet woi'ds she makes reply : 

Blushing mid the withered leaves, 
Modest, jDeerless, little thing, 

Lo ! the fragrant May-Jiower weaves 
Chaplets for the brow of Spring. 

Blooming in the sunny days. 
Humbly trailing on the ground. 

Coyly shrinking from our gaze, 
Waiting to be sought, if found. 

Next of all the floral train, 

Comes the wind-flower's fragile form, 

Gently nursed by sun and rain. 
Growing in the covert warm. 

In the valleys, on the knolls. 

Smiling with a look serene. 
The welcome violet unfolds, 

Beauteous in its shape and mien : 

Springing from the humid sod. 

Silent as the dewy even. 
Raising its meek eye to God, 

Tinted with the hues of heaven. 

Sparkling on the water's breast. 

Like a jewel bright and rare. 
See the lily''s form at rest, 

Purely white and strangely fair. 

Nestling in the pine-tree's shade. 
Catching summer's latest sighs, 

In its bridal state arrayed, 
The sweet Linncsa blooms and dies. 



POEM. 

Fringing all the silvery streams, 

First of all in splendor classed. 
Here the princely Laurel gleams 

With a beauty unsm-passed. 

Thus my fingers deftly trace 

Lessons with true wisdom fraught ; 

Types I give of mental grace, 

Grace of feeling, wealth of thought. 

Pictures of the life refined, 

Far above the reach of art ; 
Symbols of the love enshrined 

In a sweet and holy heart. 

Come with me now to Barrett's Hill : 
The ancient landmarks yet remain ; 
River and brook are murmuring still ; 
The wide horizon bounds the plain ; 
The distant mountains, nude and dim, 

In homage seem to bend, while earth 
Chants forth her grateful morning hymn. 

Each day repeated since her birth. 
The dark and pathless woods are gone ; 

The hills and vales with verdure teem ; 
Smooth, shady roads sweep past the lawn ; 
The v.exed Souhegan's hurrying stream, 
Caught and imprisoned, deigns to spin 
Fabrics for human need; and, look! 
With breath of fire and clanging din. 

The iron steed through Roclcij Brook 
Rushes like demon mad with pain ! 
In pastures free the cattle roam. 
The green, glad fields stand thick with grain. 

For man finds here a quiet home. 
And hark ! within this hallowed grove 

I hear a voice, loud, sweet, and strong, 
Rehearse the story that we love, 
And this the burden of the song : 

God bless New England ! brave and free 
Are they who till her rugged soil, 



63 



64 CESTEKNIAI. CELEBRATION. 

Labor for them has dimity. 
And Heaven repays their hardy toil. 

I love the grave simplicity, 
And staid demeanor of her sires ; 

New England is the home for me, — 
Whose name to generous deeds inspires. 

God bless New England ! ever famed 

For just regard to public good, 
For equal laws to virtue framed. 

For enterprise and hardihood ; 
For science, piety, and zeal 

In Freedom's holy cause, and love 
Of home, none but the free can feel, — 

Xew England homes all homes above ! 

God bless Xew England ! every hill 

And dale are sacred unto me ; 
I love her snow-clad forests still, 

And her loud ocean minstrelsy. 
God bless Xew England ! "tis my prayer 

Breathed from my inmost soul on high ; 
With love unchanged her fate PU share, — 

Sere Kould Hive and here Pd die. 



CHRONICLES 



BY CHARLES E, HLLL. 



THE WORDS OF THE PROPHET HILL-KIAH, AS THEY ARE WRITTEN 
IX THE BOOK OF SHAPHAN, THE SCRIBE. 



CHAPTER I. 

Early settlement of America. Oppression of 
the King of the East. Nun-importation Act. 

AND certain men came from a far-off 
country in the East, and pitched their 
tents in the wilderness of Barjathaaron, 
which is, by interpretation, America, and 
made their abode there with the owl of 
the desert and the bears of the wilderness. 

2 And they became exceeding fruitful, 
and increased, and multiplied, and drave 
out the ancient inhabitants of the land. 

3 Their sons were men of great stature, 
skilful in all manner of cunning work, and 
their daughters were comely and fair to 
look upon, sweeter than honey in the honey- 
comb, and more to be desired than gold, 
yea, than much fine gold. And the}' were 
prospered, and became a mighty people. 

4 And the King of the East sent among 
them merchants, traders, and tax-gather- 
ers, who greatly troubled the people,taking 
away from him that hath, and not sparing 
him that hath not. 

5 Then the chief men and elders took 
counsel together, and said among them- 
selves: Shall a man reap where he hath 
not sowed, or exact a grievous tax of him 
who hath no vote ? As for us, we will not 
have a king to rule over us, neither will 
we pay tribute to him who is not Ca;sar, 
nor buy merchandise of the men of the 
East at a great price. 

6 And the inhabitants of Barjathaaron 
bought no more of the spices of the East, 
nor silver, nor gold, nor of precious stones, 
neither of green tea, nor black tea, but it 
is written. They tasted of adversi-te. 

7 For an alarm of war was heard through- 
out the land. And it came tcHpass in Gibeah, 
which, by interpretation, is called Mason, 
that a certain man, named Benjamin Mann, 
called together the inhabitants of the land 
and spake unto them. 

* See History ot 

9 



8 Now Benjamin was a scribe, and wise 
after his generation, and he rose up before 
the people, and said, Ye men of Gibeah! 
Do ye not dwell on high places, and eat 
of the increase of the fields ? For you the 
hills are covered over with flocks, and the 
valleys bring forth goodly grass, even 
" blue jint and foul medder." 

9 Ye can suck honey from the rock-ma- 
ple and oil from the fat of oxen. Have ye 
not butter of kine and milk of sheep, with 
the fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of 
Bashan, and goats, and potatoes, and oats? 

10 Do ye not drink of the juice of ap- 
ples, when ye rise up, and of the pure 
blood of rye, when, truly, ye fall down ? 

11 Lo! are not your daughters skilful 
to weave fine linen, and all manner of 
woollen stuffs? Wherefore do ye spend 
money for that which is not broad, and 
buy spices and soft raiment of the stran- 
ger, and tea, which maketh the tongue of 
woman sharper than a two-edged sword, 
and causeth the hand of the strong man to 
tremble? 

12 Come, now, let us make a covenant 
together, that we will no more have traffic 
with the King of the Ea«t, neither partake 
of the merchandise of those that go down 
to the sea in ships. And this saying 
pleased the people, and they made a cove- 
nant as he had said. 

13 Now this was called the Non-impor- 
tation Act and Agreement.* 



CHAPTER II. 

The strong men of Gibeah go down to fight 
against the hosts of the East. The people 
fear lest their supply of salt fail them. 
Thry send down to Salem to buy there- 
from. 

AND war raged throushout the land. 
For the King of the East had sent his 
Mason, p. 75. 



66 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



hosts, chosen men, apt for war, that they 
might spoil the land in the length and 
breadth thereof. 

2 Then the children of the wilderness 
rose up, and girded themselves fur bat- 
tle, and among them were many from the 
land of Gibeah, men of might, and men 
of war, that could handle the shield and 
buckler, whose faces were as the faces of 
lions, and they were swift as roes upon the 
mountains. 

3 And they went down and fell upon 
their enemies at Baal-zephor, which is, 
by interpretation, Bunker Hill, and pre- 
vailed against them, so that a great pile 
of stones was set up, which stands in re- 
membrance of their victory even unto this 
day. 

4 And it came to pass that the inhabi- 
tants of Gibeah were in great tribulation, 
and sighed for their flesh-pots and pork- 
barrels. 

5 For, said they, if our meat do lose its 
savor, wherewith shall it be salted, for we 
have no salt ? 

6 Then lifted they up their voices and 
wept; yea, they wept when they remem- 
bered their brine-barrels. 

7 Now there stood a sanctuary over up- 
on the hill near the valley of dry-bones, 
and the chief men and elders went up 
thither and took counsel how they might 
buy salt for the people. And in those 
days men spake as though they were 
moved by spirit. 

8 Then the man Dakin, a deacon in the 
land, whose surname was Amos, a ruler in 
the synagogue, and a man whom the peo- 
ple delighted to honor, lifted up his voice 
and cried out : Doth the wild ass bray 
when he hath grass, or loweth the ox over 
his fodder ? 

9 Can that which is unsavory be eaten 
without salt, or is there any taste in the 
white of an egg ? Verily, the things that 
my soul refuseth to touch are my sorrow- 
ful meat. My strength is departed from 
me. 

10 The flesh of swine I abominate, and 
even baked beans cease to move me. 

11 Lo! in Salem's towers there is salt 
enough and to spare. Let us send thither 
and buy for a fair price, lost, peradven- 
ture, our young men eating of the un- 
savory flesh of rams and conies of the 
rocks, or coons of the hollow, shall see 
evil visions, and our old men dream bad 
dreams. 

12 Then the elders answered Amos, and 
said: How now can we go down and buy 
salt, for silver and gold have we none, and 
our rag-money vanisheth like dew on the 



morning grass ? Shall we go down like a 
thief in the night, and bind the strong 
men of Salem that we may take their salt? 

13 And Aiuos answering, said, Go down; 
for it is written: Provide neither silver, 
nor gold, nor brass for your purses, nor 
scrip for your journey. 

14 Go down, then, and when ye draw 
nigh unto the men of Salem, say unto them : 
Lo ! we are of thy brethren from the laud 
of Gibeah, which is upon the hill-tops over 
beyond Raby. 

15 And the marrow drieth up in our 
bones, and our flesh wasteth away, because 
we have no salt. Then shall they give us 
of their salt, that we may live and not die. 

16 Then the people gave a shout, and 
cried out. It is the voice of a deacon. So 
let us do. 

17 And they chose Samuel, James, and 
Silas, and Obadiah, captains of the host, 
and Enosh, and Aaron, and Stephen, sur- 
named Lawrence.* And these yoked un- 
milked kino to old carts, and went down 
through the wilderness to Salem, and the 
sound of their going was as the rushing of 
many waters. 

18 For, in those days, the crooked ways 
were not made straight, nor the rough 
places smooth ; and the riders in chariots 
were constrained to cry out in the words 
of the prophet Jeremiah, my bowels, 
my bowels ! I am pained at my very 
heart; my heart maketh a noise within 
me. 

19 And it came to pass, when the men 
of Salem heard the sound of their coming 
afar oflf, they wont forth to meet them. 
And as they drew nigh, they said unto 
those who drave the carts. Is it well with 
thee? 

20 And they that drave the carts an- 
swered, Nay, it is not well ; for they were 
exceedingly pained. 

21 Then told they the men of Salem all 
the things which were in their hearts, 
even as Amos had commanded. And the 
Salemites answered them, and said. Can ye 
not earn your salt? Verily, we will not 
give unto thee, for we give nought, save 
for a price. 

22 Ye shall take of us enough and suf- 
ficient, but in due time ye shall repay 
again, even unto the uttermost farthing. 

23 Then they took and put upon the 
carts twoscore and ten ephahs of salt, 
scant measure, scraped off and scooped out, 
as the manner of men now is. 

24 Then the men of Gibeah turned back, 
homeward, gofeig through the wilderness 
by the same way in which they had come, 
seven days' journey. 



* History of ilason, pp. rs, 79, 80, 84, 85, 86, 88. 



CHRONICLES. 



67 



25 Now, when the time drew nigh in 
wliich they should pay for the salt, the 
people were greatly perplexed. 

2(5 For ceitain men, sous of Belial, who 
dwelt iu the country round about, but had 
possessions in Gibeah, cried out to the el- 
ders on the day of Pentecost, which is, by 
interpretation, the town-meeting, saying, 
AVhat have we to do with you, ye salt- 
buyers ? 

27 Verily we have raised our own meat 
and made our own brine; and as for us we 
will not pay for that which we have not 
had and which we want not, neither want 
we that which yo have. 

28 Then were the elders exceeding an- 
gry; and they seized upon the portion of 
those who would not pay the debt, and 
sold it unto strangers; and the names of 
those evil-doers were blotted from the book 
of remembrance forever. 

29 Then had the people rest from their 
salt troubles. 

CHAPTER III. 

Great prosperity in the land of Gibeah. 
Building of the temple in Peterboro'. 
Strength and valor of Thomas and his 
sons. 

AND it came to pass, when the sons of 
men saw that the daughters of Gibeah 
were exceeding fair and beautiful, they 
took them wives of all which they chose. 

2 And they were fruitful as kittens, and 
brought forth sons and daughters of great 
stature, even seven cubits and less. 

3 And so it happened that the dwellers 
in the land of Jabesh, which is, by inter- 
pretation, Peterboro', builded a temple; 
and they sent through all the region round 
about for the mighty men of great strength 
and skilful in timber-work, to set up the 
pillars and raise the beams thereof. 

4 Then went there up from the land of 
Gibeah, Thomas and his seven sons, val- 
iant men, each strong as a beau, and swift 
to follow after the young heart in shady 
places. 

5 And the giants of the land assembled 
in .Jabesh ; and they raised the temple 
with great labor, beam upon beam, and 
rafter after rafter; and they placed a 
watch-tower thereon. 

And it came to pass, when they had 
made an end of the work, that the spirit of 
old Jamaica fell upon the strong men, and 
they made merry with unleavened bread 
and dry codfish. 

7 And becoming exceeding joyful, they 
rose up from the ground and wrestled to- 
gether, and lo, the sons of Thomas over- 
threw all which went up to meet them, and 
none could stand, for they smote them hip 



and thigh, so that they fell heavily to the 
ground. 

8 But there were certain men, sons of 
Belial, Red-headites,and descendants from 
the isles of the sea, which, when they wore 
cast down, became possessed of devils, and 
took counsel how they might slay the sons 
of Thomas. 

9 Now there dwelt in the land of Ja- 
besh a certain publican and wine-bibber, 
who dealt with familiar spirits; 

10 A man wonderful to behold, for his 
nose was like a carbuncle, and his eyes 
like rubies, exceeding red. His cheeks 
blossomed as the rose, with toddy-blos- 
soms, and his mouth was like a toper's. 
His belly was like a barrel, and his legs as 
half-barrels. 

11 And the Red-headites went in unto 
him and said. Can the stone be swiftly 
hurled where there is no sling, or is the 
head broken without a puneh '! 

12 Give us, therefore, punch and sling, 
hot and strong, that we may go up to meet 
the strong men and overthrow them, even 
as Goliah overthrew David. 

13 Now these were vain babblers, and 
understood not the Scripture. 

14 Then the publican was sore amazed, 
and hasted and made ready, and gave un- 
to them. Then girded they up their loins, 
anti went forth to lay violent hands upon 
the sons of Thomas. 

15 And it came to pass that the old man, 
even Thomas himself, rose and stood be- 
fore the people, and cried out with a terri- 
ble loud voice, If any man wants to fight," 
let him take me, and let my boys alone. 

16 Then confusion fell upon the Red- 
headites, and they vanished like grease 
before the fire. 

17 And all those beholding were filled 
with amazement, and cried out. Behold 
the strength of Gibeah and the glory 
thereof. He mocketh at fear, and is not 
affrighted. He saith among the trumpets. 
Ha, ha! and is more terrible than an army 
without banners. 

18 And the Red-headites called Thomas 
and his sons, in their own tongue, Tarri- 
bles, because they caused great terror to 
all beholding, and so it is their descend- 
ants among us are called Tarbells even 
unto this day. 

19 Now all the rest of the acts of the peo- 
ple of Gibeah, and all that they did; how 
their sons and daughters went forth to the 
North and South, and the East and West, 
through all the land, even unto Gotham; 

20 And how they were greatly prospered, 
and sent of the fruit of their substance to 
bless the home of their fathers; are they 
not written in the book of John, the coun- 
selor, even in the "History of Mason"? 



68 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

21 But the eyes of the prophet Hill-Kiah Chamberlain waits to hasten you to the 
wax dim, and his stomach groweth faint banquet. 

by reason of long fasting; and, lo! as in 23 This day is Scripture revealed unto 

a vision, he heareth the sound of a going you, and now he that hath a purse let him 

among the pine-trees, and the people be- take it, and likewise his scrip, for the 

stir themselves. money-changers await your coming. 

22 There is the voice of one crying in 24 Stay yourselves with flagons and be 
the wilderness, Lo! the meat offerings and comforted with apples. 

drink offerings are ready, and the royal 25 To your tents, Israel! 



SENTIMENTS AND RESPONSES. 



No. 1. — We welcome those who have gone out from us to plant the 
institutions of religion and social order in the Far West. 

RESPONSE BY REV. T. HILL, OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI. 

Mr. President^ and Ladies and Gentlemen : It is a great gratifi- 
cation to me to be present with you on this centennial day of our 
beloved ancestral home. It is a joy to gaze on these familiar hills, 
graced as they are with never-failing beauty ; the old rocks and 
trees, so familiar in all their outlines ; and yon burying-gronnd, 
where sleep the honored and best-loved ones, gathered to their 
silent homes, — all intimately blended with every association of 
childhood and youth. It is a joy to me to see once more so many 
familiar faces of friends from whom I have been so long separated. 
I see ,you, the associates of my youth, the companions of school- 
daj's, and the friends who were gathered in the old familiar church. 
We are changed much now, but the memory of those days lives 
with unchanged freshness still. 

To participate in these scenes, I have come a long journey of 
near seventeen hundred miles, from my home on the banks of the 
rapid and ever muddy Missouri, upon whose troubled face I look 
almost every hour. This place will seem to many of you as the 
real Far West, to which so many have been migrating these many 
years ; but to me it is hardly the West at all, for there is a West, 
full of activity and busy life, so much beyond where I live, that I 
seem to myself to be in the centre, and not in the West. I have 
often gazed on the long trains of wagons starting on their weary 
journey of eight hundred miles to Santa Fe, and I daily see the 
cars, as they disappear in the west, starting on their journey to 
cross the great plains where the buffalo may still be found in count- 
less numbers. 

The children of New England have always been a wandering 
race ; go where you will you meet them, oftentimes where you 
might least expect them ; yet, wherever they may be, they look 
with fond recollections to the hills and rocks of their ancestral 
home. Other fields may be larger, other streams may be longer ; 
but none are more beautiful than the green hills and the brooks of 
the home where childhood and youth were spent. But what occu- 



70 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

pies the sons of New England in their wanderings ? What detains 
them away from this land so filled with pleasant memories? They 
are found engaged in everything, good and bad. The}^ are found 
in the pulpit, pointing dying men to the realities that outlive the 
tomb ; the}^ are in the school-room, directing the minds of those 
who will soon control the destinies of the nation ; they are in po- 
litical office, from governors and congressmen down to the lowest 
stations of influence and power ; and in whatever they engage, for 
good or ill, the}'^ usually leave their impress strongly marked. In 
the pulpit, they are often the pioneers on the frontiers of civiliza- 
tion, planting the banner of the cross in advance of all others. 
Tiie first man who preached the Presbyterian faith beyond the 
Mississippi was from Connecticut. Many of his early associates 
were from New England, and from that day till this a goodly num- 
ber of the preachers west of the great river have been from New 
England. 

In legal and political life, one can point to the Chief Justice of 
the nation from our own New Hampshire, or can point to one who 
swayed the populace as few men ever have done, who knew the 
secret sources of influence far better than most men, — the great 
Illinois Senator, who was from Vermont. The halls of Congress 
and the chairs of governors often show men who came from a home 
far distant from the one they represent or now occupy. 

Most of these are honorable and honored men ; but some of them, 
undoubtedly, are often the pattern of one whose repeated failure 
for office at home was consoled by his son, who preceded him to 
the West, and wrote back to his disappointed father, saying, " Fa- 
ther, come out here and run for Congress, for mighty mean men get 
office out here." 

But among the best things New England has done for the West 
has been her influence over education, in the way of schools. Many 
of the colleges in the West have had their roots in the New Eng- 
land home ; thence came the men wlio founded tliem, the money 
that endowed them, and the instructors who toiled for them. In 
ail the ways in which schools have been benefited, New England 
has had her share. He who drew the present excellent public- 
school law of Illinois was from New Hampshire ; and in many an 
humble school-house on the edge of the prairie, or in the rising 
cities of the West, may be found one who learned how to teach in 
the New England school. 

But however far the son of New England may have wandered, 
however well he may love his new home, he will look back to the 
hills whence he came with pleasant memories. 

I once spent a Sabbath in a village in Illinois. On inquiring of 
the man, at whose house I was entertained, whence he came, I found 
he was from Townsend. He had been there thirteen years without 
having returned, and Avhen he found who I was, and whence I came, 
he plied me with many questions in regard to the old home, — who 
was dead, who were married, who preached, and who traded, and 



SENTIMENTS AND RESPONSES. 71 

all the many queries of the familiar home life. After this he said, 
" You liave some townsmen here ; " and I found and had a pleasant 
interview with some who had known me in childliood. 

A few weeivs after tliis there came an invitation for me to talce 
the care of the church of wliich mine host was an honored elder ; 
but I have never been there since. 

Once, as a pastor, I sat b}' the bedside of one who had come from 
the far East to visit her son in the West. Her stay was but few 
da3's, when the cholera laid its hand upou her, and she soon passed 
awa}'', faintly whispering, "Bury me by the side of my mother." 
I have heard of a very different scene, no less illustrative of the 
New England character, of two gamblers meeting at Santa Fe, 
and, after discovering their common origin, they spent a long time 
discussing the familiar scenes of the old home, and as they sep- 
arated the one says to the other, " You are a Yankee, and so am 
I, and now^ let us sing Old Hundred in memory of the past." 

But wliy should we go from the land we remember so pleas- 
antl}^? Undoubtedly it may be said of most of us, in the words of 
Holy Writ, "■ If they had been mindful of the country whence they 
came, they might have had opportunity to return." So most of 
New England's sons prefer their western home. No ; however fair 
New England may be, the great West presents attractions stronger 
still ; her pi'airies, filled Avith flowers in their wild condition, filled 
with teeming harvests in tlieir cultivated form, call for men, and 
bind them with linlcs that cannot be broken. 

Our country is one. Her New England homes, her broad west- 
ern lands, her golden mountains, richer far than the Ophir of Solo- 
mon, and her sunsets on the Pacific, — all, all make but one land, 
and the New Englander is still at home into whatever part he 
wanders. 

We go there that we may make a broader New England ; that we 
ma}' transplant her energy and skill, her schools, and her firmest 
religious faith on a broader field ; that we maj^ retain what is most 
excellent of our own, and mingle it with -what is most desirable in 
the other portions of our land. We would do what we can to make 
our country the most glorious land of earth. From the Atlantic to 
the Pacific we would have the land of the Puritan and the Cavalier, 
the land of the Dutchman and the Huguenot, the land of Frank- 
lin and of Washington, one land, free, intelligent, and holy ; one 
land, the richest, the fairest, and the best of earth. 

No. 2. — We welcome those who, having gone from us, have aided in 
sustaining, in tlie commercial metropolis of our country, the character 
of tho sons of New Hampshire for integrity, enterprise, and success 
in business in every portion of our land. 

RESPONSE BY B. W. MERRIAM, ESQ., OF NEW YORK. 

Encouraged by the above sentiment, commencing b}' welcoming 
us to this banquet who commenced life here, I take pleasure in 



72 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

saying a word in response. I rejoice, Mr. President, to be here to- 
da}', — this day so full of interest to us who are permitted to look 
upon those who began life together ; and while I see but few, com- 
paratiA^ely, of this class, their descendants are numerous and 
happy. How improved is 3^our condition, m}^ youthful friends, 
from that of your predecessors ! 

I well remember the day when those not compelled to go on 
foot rode only on horseback ; the father in the saddle, the mother 
upon the pillion ; the brother in the saddle, the sister upon the 
pillion. 

Well I remember, Mr. President, when the first pleasure-wagon, 
so called, was owned in this town, and also remember the name of 
the owner, and his industry and toil to procure the amount of money 
necessary to obtain it. At the early period alluded to, a boy to 
see a cit}^ must walk a portion or all of the distance to it. I have 
not forgotten, when a 3^outh, leaving this, my home, in an after- 
noon, and, after walking most of the journey during the night, as 
the sun arose the next morning, was permitted to look upon the 
great city of Boston, then containing thirty or forty thousand in- 
liabitants. 

Had one predicted then that a railroad would now have been in 
this town, we should have thought such a prophet a false one. At 
the present day, instead of being twenty-four hours on foot, 3'ou 
enter the car, and in two hours reach Boston and find there four, 
five, and six hundred thousand inhabitants ; in a few hours more 
3'Ou reach New York, and behold its teeming millions. 

Those of us who left this New Hampshire town, and whose lives 
have been spent in commercial cities of our country, are indebted 
to the earl}' mental and physical training we were subjected to 
here, for the strength which has enabled us to battle with the cares 
and temptations of a commercial life. Here in New Hampshire 
we learned early to assume responsibilities ; the healthful moun- 
tain breezes helped us to obtain almost iron constitutions ; Chris- 
tian admonitions, together Avith a little of Solomon's "birch," 
taught us obedience and truthfulness ; and if we have been success- 
ful merchants, we remember that in New Hampshire we were told 
that " honesty is the best polic3\" In New Hampshire we learned 
also that integrity and enterprise are twin sisters, and lead not 
only to success in business, but to the confidence and esteem of 
those with whom we are associated in life. 

No. 3. — We revere and cherish the niomory of our townsmen who, 
under the command of Captain Benjamin Mann, marched to Cam- 
bridge, joined tlie patriot army, and took part in the battle of Bunker 
liill ; and of all our patriot citizens who, on the many battle-fields 
from Quebec to Yorktown, endured the hardships of war, and perilled 
their lives in the cause of their country'. 

Responded to by Hon. John B. Hill. The gentleman to whom 
this sentiment was assigned not answering when called upon, at 



SENTIMENTS AND RESPONSES. ' 73 

the request of the President, Mr. Hill made a brief response, of 
which no report has been preserved. 

No. 4. — The day we celebrate. 

RESPONSE BY REV. SAMUEL LEE, OP NEW IPSWICH. 

3Ir. President : In the absence of the speaker expected to an- 
swer to this toast, I address you. It ma}^ seem like arrogance or 
presumption in me, on the mere spur of the moment, to attempt a 
response to this, which is really the great sentiment of the occa- 
sion. But it will be remembered that a ver}^ unpretending article 
is sometimes used to fill the place of a missing pane in the window. 

A centennial is sacred. It rises as an eminence between the 
years of the century past and the indefinite future. We stand upon 
that eminence and survey the past, then turn and gaze upon the 
future that fades away in the distance. And we know that solemn 
future is in no small degree to receive its character from the cen- 
tur}^ past and the view we take of it to-day. 

As in the individual so in a community, the inceptive period is 
specially important. Here we find the springs whence issue the 
streams that pass into the future for good or evil, — the origin 
of the trains of antecedent and consequent passing out and in- 
creasing as they go, expanding in ramifications which mingle each 
with those of others and make up the web and quality of society. 
The good people of Mason to-day are what the energy and cour- 
age and perseverance and toils and self-denial and prayers and 
holy living of the first settlers have made them. Hence that sen- 
timent, indigenous to the human mind, of reverence for ancestors. 
We revere the memory of the men who have sent down to us those 
influences that have been so potent in forming at once our charac- 
ter and condition. And then there is a sort of enchantment which 
distance lends to the view. We see them only in the hazy indis- 
tinctness of the past. Their faults, if they had them, we perceive 
not, and think only of the good in their lives, the influence of which 
has come down in blessed sequences to administer to our well-be- 
ing. Their memory is blessed and salutary. We go to the locali- 
ties where they lived and toiled, and to the graves where their 
remains are sacredly preserved, with the feeling that we are on 
holy ground. And we feel, too, that Grod is in their historj'^ and 
in all that connects it with us and ours. And in the influences 
that they bring to us we hear the voice of God. 

A centennial serves as an occasion for collecting the facts of the 
early history of the town, but for which they would soon be lost 
forever. To preserve these wc owe to posterity, who as truly as 
ourselves have an interest in them. For the influences that have 
come down to us from them have accomplished only a part, and a 
small part, of their wondrous mission. They pause not here, save 
for the brief hours of '• tlie day we celebrate," tliat we ma_y notice 
them and estimate their importance, then renew their march adown 
10 



74 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

the solemn, awful future. To that future, then, we are debtors. 
And in the person of our competent and faithful historian of the 
da^', we have met our obligations. 

I hope this centennial will be regarded as an authoritative prece- 
dent, and be imitated by those of each of the coming centuries. 
But who shall celebrate the next? Not one of us. It is indeed 
possible, though not probable, that some one of the little ones that 
are here to-day may tell with faltering utterance the story of the 
hundred years. Perhaps these sparkling eyes, then dimmed with 
age, may witness the scenes of the next centennial.* 

No ; while the consequences of what we shall have been and 
done shall be met in this life by our successors, we shall be meet- 
ing such consequences in another mode of being. 

But I trust that the next centennial shall be held in the midst 
of a condition of privilege and glory to which we are strangers. 
The pen of inspiration hath told us of a blessed future, — a new 
heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. That 
day hastens on. Everything in the present indicates that this 
world is on the eve of a great moral transformation. The facts 
betoken rapid development. God is even now getting ready that 
New Jerusalem which shall come down from his abode and find its 
place upon earth. The Tabernacle of God shall soon be with 
men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people ; 
and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 

" Fly swifter round, ye wheels of time, 
Aud bring the welcome day." 

No. 5. — Mason : Her past is history ; lier future is in her own hands. 

RESPONSE BY JOSEPH C. MASON, ESQ., OF BOONEVILLE, MISSOURI. 

Friends and Fellow-Citizens : Though I have not the honor to 
claim in this town a nativity, yet by adoption she is mine. Her 
intelligent inhabitants, her educational institutions, her religious 
temples, her rock}^ elevations that bask in the early beams of morn- 
ing, are dear to yoio, and so they are to me. The present and fu- 
ture of Mason : — What are the duties of the present? What are 
its promises? The past lies behind us; and we may well turn 
from its annals and look down the ages. When the clock of time 
shall have recorded another centennial revolution, our descendants 
will stand here to speak of us. What, oh, what shall be their 
lano-uao-e? What the burden of their discourse? 

The character of this, ancient town is now strong, its reputa- 
tion untarnished. Because we have inherited a legacy so rich, the 
future will have upon us large demands. If the facilities for 
progress are greater than ever before, a corresponding increase of 
results will be expected at our hands. 

* Just here a little boy, son of Lucius A. Elliott, Esq., passed across the 
stage, and the speaker laid his hand upon his head as he uttered the last 
sentence. 



SENTIMENTS AND KESPONSES. 75 

This one thought should engage our attention here and now : 
Our responsibility to those on tvhom no ray of light has yet shone. 
Men and communities must labor for the unborn. He who plants 
a tree plants for others. It is a law of our being that one shall 
sow and another reap. Let this occasion, so fruitful in memories 
of the past, awaken in the bosoms of all (especially the young) 
noble resolves and lofty aspirations. 

Are we as a people keeping our estate ? Could the hardy sons 
who turned into smiling fields these once unfrequented wilds stand 
here to-day and proudly claim us by an alliance of blood and 
character? Can the aged sire, whose wisdom is commensurate 
with his years, let his mantle fall upon the son with a confidence 
that he will wear it wortliily? 

I sometimes cast about me for the coming men and women, — 
for those to whom this fair heritage must soon be committed. How 
many young men of Mason are preparing for the great future? 
How many are adding, day by day, to their stores of useful knowl- 
edge, or are, by slow but sure degrees, forming characters 
against which the waves of passion and prejudice may not prevail ? 
characters in keeping with the high exigencies that so frequently 
summon the citizens of a free country to do and to dare ? I shall not 
be misunderstood here. The nineteenth century is full of demands 
upon the philanthropist and the patriot. 

The present happy auspices, under which we are assembled, 
fully attest how well those demands have been met by our retiring 
ancestors. History will do justice to their deeds and to them. But 
some one must write our history. " The stream cannot rise above 
its fountain." Glorioiis deeds cannot be born of ignorance, of in- 
difference, of immorality. They spring from noble impulses, sup- 
ported by heroic endeavor ; from knowledge, and virtue, and 
courage. 

My voice is to the young. With them I plead. They hold in 
their hands, to a great extent, the destiny of this town. They are 
stamping indelibly upon it features by which it shall be recognized 
at a time when our voices shall be hushed in a dreamless sleep. 
Let the example of our fathers, living and dead, of former resi- 
dents who have come to us to-day from homes afar, of all the noble 
spirits who, in the long line of years departed, have stood upon this 
sacred soil, inspire in our hearts higher and holier purposes in the 
present, and the future shall come to us freighted with the rich re- 
wards of an Almighty hand. 

No. 6. — Mason, lior hills i\nd valleys, her fruits and wild flowers. 

RESPONSE BY LUCIUS A. ELLIOTT, OF BOSTON. 

3fr. President : I thank you' for appointing to me a response to 
this rather than to any other sentiment. 

You, sir, know the fond and sacred esteem in which 1 hold the 
rugged hills and the sweet valleys of my native town ; how dear to 



76 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

me are her name and all things pertaining to her. She is rough, 
indeed, and her thin soil does not so generously yield a return to la- 
bor as do the wonderful alluvial expanses of the West, from which 
some of her .prospering sons, perchance, sometimes turn a thought 
of pity toward her well-remembered fields, of rocks and roots and 
scanty herbage, or as does the great field of commerce in cities 
East and West. We would fain believe, however, that from their 
distant homes beyond the Father of Waters, or nearer the great 
lakes, or where they swell the channels of trade in our commercial 
centres, or where they are tarrying in foreign lands, they are ten- 
derly thinking of their native hills to-day, and that indeed there 
are no hills or valleys so fondly cherished as those which fill the 
landscape of their childhood. 

Mr. President, I should reverence and love old Mason if I had 
not been cradled in her lap. Do the prairies, the mysterious 
mounds, the vast coal-beds of the West, the submerged forests of 
the Mississippi, and the monarchs of the Yo Semite, bid our ad- 
miration for their great antiquity and mysterious origin ? Who shall 
stand indifferent before our hills, with their granite boulders, which 
had existence ages before the creation of man, — before the mighty 
w^aters had detached from its parent granite the first particle of 
dust of which the prairies were made ? They speak to us of that 
remote period when there was no verdure upon the earth, — ere 
God had cleft a way for the rivers, or made a bed for the ocean, — 
ere His handiwork had made the ever-changing curtain above the 
earth, when in the silence of the ages they were alone with God, 
and when the Great Architect was in them preparing a foundation 
for all he has since made of beauty and majesty to live upon 
the eart]}. 

Our hills and granite pebbles deserve our love. They give to us 
the music of the brooks, and send the little fructifiers down to the 
meadows. Ah, how many sons of the hills are there in city count- 
ing-rooms, who, perhaps, go at night to luxurious homes, where in 
music they hear the best imitations of nature which art can give, 
who yearn to sit on their native hill-sides and hear again — what 
piano or flute or human voice could never produce — the song of 
the brook ! How many have homes on the vast plains, on which no 
hill rises with its gurgling brook, who would be glad to part with 
many of their fertile acres could they thus bring such a sight and 
sound b}^ their doors ! 

And the cool, bracing air of our hills ! It is not a matter for 
wonder that so many rush from the cities, when the sun burns the 
streets, to refresh themselves in such a bath, or that sometimes 
languishing ones — distant from their native hills — are heard to 
long for the air that moved their infant life, strengthened them in 
childhood's days, and never had aught but blessing in it. 

And, oh, the prospects which these hills afford ! That Masonian 
has but little poetry in his soul, who, in a pleasant summer twi- 
light, caii ride over the "Merriam" or " Sanders Hill," without 



SENTIMENTS AND RESPONSES. 77 

tarrying from other thoughts to enjoy for a few moments the pic- 
ture before him. How delightful in the morning, when the mists 
lie along the "-Merrmm," and all beyond is half covered, half re- 
vealed, through the veil, while hitherwards the chimneys of a hun- 
dred homes are sending up their signals of awakening life, and the 
landscape is opening its bosom to the coming king of day ! How 
beautiful at noon, when the moisture of the morning has freshened 
the colors of woodland, tillage, and pasture ; when the distant hills 
put on their heavenly blue, and are flanked by a curtain of myste- 
rious haze which speaks of fairy-land beyond ! How charming at 
sunset, when the blue of the hills has changed to mellow purple, 
and the long shadows of the woods and hills are adding variety to 
the forms and hues of the familiar fields ! I well remember the 
pleasure expressed by a lady from a western city when she stood 
on Barrett Hill. Her journe3dngs had never before extended be- 
yond the prairies, and she had never seen a hill until the visit in 
question. It was easy to perceive that, as she approached the sum- 
mit, she was both surprised and delighted, but when her eye had ta- 
ken in the Temple Mountains, Joe English, the Ammonoosucs, and 
the blue film of the White Mounta ns beyond, — had turned to the 
picturesque landscape of village, farm, and woodland, with its dis- 
tant bound of blue in the south-east and south, — had swept 
around to Ashby, and to New Ipswich, with her white hamlets 
nestling under the hills, with dark Wachuset and hoary Monad- 
nock behind all, — she exclaimed, with every appearance of rapture, 
" This is Paradise ! " 

My fi'iends, we emigrants rejoice in the hills and valleys of Ma- 
son. They furnish pictures for the halls of our memories, such as 
no artist can provide ; for not only are they redolent with moving, 
living varieties, such as no pencil can animate, but the associa- 
tions of youth, in the midst of which we transferred these scenes 
to our mental canvas, can never accompany the work of a human 
artist. He cannot restore to us the happy circle at the foot of the 
hill, — the dear friends who gazed with us on these scenes, but 
who have ceased from the earth. There are two other hills where 
many of them sleep, — hills which shall yet be most glorious of 
all, when they become the scenes of the mightiest miracles of human 
history, as in the Master's good time they will. Fondly do our 
hearts turn to them and their sacred mounds to-day, and some of 
us are saying. Oh that my father, my mother, my child, my sister, 
or my brother were here ! Thanks to our gracious Father, we are 
not forbidden the hope that in holy sympathy they do mingle with 
us on this occasion, and that they rejoice in every worthy exercise 
that gives us joy. 

And now, Mr. President, what shall I say for the wild flowers 
of Mason? Her sons and daughters know them so well that no 
poet botanist is needed to speak their praise to them. How can I, 
neither a poet nor a botanist, speak of them to strangers? Let me 



% \\\x 



Wv ^ V. Cv(;^ 



78 CEKTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

seek to make them tell their own praises. Bring vases, and let us 
see if we can set for our guests a bouquet for each month. 

What shall cold January, the midnight of the year, provide? A 
background of spruce, with spreading arms decked with brown 
cones and delicate vermilion cups of moss ; a foreground of oak, 
brown and purple, gathered from the old Bullard woods last fall. 

February, not as cold as usual, shall let us find mosses and the 
beautiful miniature of the ivy vine on which the fox-plum grows. 
"We will build a mound of moss, twine the vine about it, drop here 
and there a red and yellow thornberry, twist a spray of crooked 
laurel into a chair, and, placing it in the midst, will make a throne 
fit for Titania. 

March will send us to the woods again, where, lifting the snow, 
we shall find the dwarf evergreen, which we can train about the 
vase in festoons and bunches of green, so that we shall forget that 

" The stormy Mcarch has come at last; " 

a "few toes from the " pussy-willow," found |by any. brook, and 
sprigs of brown-alder tassels will mingle beautifully with the 
green. 

Waiting till late April, we may be compensated by a cluster of 
violets, which, with swelling buds of birch, and perchance a touch 
of crimson from the rock-maple blossom, a back of hemlock, and a 
few early grasses, will well furnish April. 

And now comes the month in which spring seems fully born, 
and we shall have no lack of delicate flowers just opening their 
eyes upon the earth. Once we could have filled dozens of vases 
in the Adams woods, near Chamberlin's mill, with the carefully 
pencilled Benjamin, and we doubt not the boys and girls 
know where thej'' may now be found so soon as May has fairly 
driven the snow from the ground. But here is the trailing ar- 
butus, the pure, simple, sweet May-flower, in pink and white, and 
here the modest and graceful anemone. May shall have two 
vases. The ferns and larger flowers shall show their glory alone, 
and, since we shall have nothing so lovely again, we will let 
the May-flower, the anemone, and the meek-eyed strawberry blos- 
som rest in each other's bosom. 

June will quite satisfy us with her wonderful laurel, — its deli- 
cate flower of pink flecked with deep brown, and its rich leaf of 
green. See, the pastures near Pratt Pond are all aflame with 
them. In our June vase we will drop a few blossoms of the wild 
grape near Luther Nutting's, to get the most delicate of perfumes. 

July shall give us wild roses, blueberry balls, blackberry blos- 
soms, the beautiful pink hardback, white elder blossoms, daisies, 
chestnut pendules, and the meadow pink from the little marsh 
near the top of Barrett Hill, with rich ferns for a setting. 

August will furnish a plenty of broad leaves for a liackground, 
with the Canada thistle and the great thistle, on which the yellow 
finch so loves to swing, the wild primrose, the white hardback, 



SENTIMENTS AND RESPONSES. 79 

the golden rod, and the cardinal flower, from Felton Brook, for 
relief. 

Upon September we will call for a spraj^ of chestnut-bearing 
clusters of filling burrs, and before it we will placQ some berries of 
ripened sumach, and intertwine the clematis with its hazy blossom. 
In the woods on Dnnster Hill we will find plenty of fungi of all 
tints needful for any effect of colors, and Mr. Whittaker will add 
a few vines of cranberry. 

And what shall we do with the wealth that October brings ? — her 
sprays of sumach, green and red, her trembling birches of all tints 
of yellow, and her mosses, with bird's wheat and delicate cups of 
many forms and hues, soon to sleep under the snow ? 

We must have a late Indian summer, that November may have 
for us some of the maples, the woodbine, the ivy, and the sarsapa- 
rilla. I know a pasture maple in this town that, with its wondrous 
variety of autumn tints, would be an object of greater interest in 
H3ale Park than is any one of its famous trees. 

For the December setting we will have a twig of brown oak 
with its acorns. If the winter is not too early, and the winds have 
not been too rough, we will find some sprays of silver leaves from 
the beech, a few spines from the pine, and brown flag blossoms, 
yet waiting in the Rocky Brook marsh, near Uncle Charles Scrip- 
ture's. 

Now, stranger friends, do not think we have gathered for you 
half the varieties of wild flowers with which, in their season, our 
fields and I'oadsides abound. An expert botanist only could recall 
them. If, however, those we have named have been well set, we 
have a display of which any Masonian may be proud, and we ask 
you if our delicate and gorgeous array of summer flowers, in their 
rich brown frame, are not at least worthy of " honorable men- 
tion " on this festal day ? 

I give you, sir, again. The fruits and flowers of Mason : the 
fairest are the characters and the benefactions of some of her sons 
and daughters. The hills of Mason : the best are the little Hills, 
whose Ebenezer was established here about eighty years ago. 

No. 7. — Glimpses of our fathers one hundred years ago. 

RESPONSE BY SAMUEL DUNSTER, ESQ., OF ATTLEBORO', MASS. 

I am glad to return to this good old habitat, to participate in the 
pleasures and enjoyments of the first centennial celebration of 
Mason, and to mingle again with the friends and companions of 
my early days, although 1 find many of them, like myself, to have 
passed the limits of easy recognition. It is my privilege at this 
time to be the representative by lineal descent, as well as name 
which no longer exists in this community, of the head of a family ; 
and the ladies and gentlemen will please pardon me, if, ,in the few 
words I may venture to say, I may seem to be egotistic in referring 
to an ancestor who was a resident, and freeholder of fair estate, 



80 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

of this town at the time of its incorporation, and who took an 
active part in bringing it into municipal existence. 

Although our knowledge of the personal efforts of each 
individual in organizing the town must of necessity be mere 
glimj)ses, yet we have the highest assurance that he, from his well- 
known religious character, used his best endeavors for that pur- 
pose, that as a corporation the}' could more readily promote the 
welfare of the settlement, advance the cause of truth, hire preach- 
ing, and " to see if thej'^ could come into some measure for further 
finishing the meeting-house." 

In the establishment of the church as a distinct organization, 
three or four years afterwards, he was a zealous worker. When it 
w\as fully established he was appointed " to serve the Table of the 
Lord for a time until the church shall proceed to make choice of 
Deacons." 

His wife, also, was one of the nine sisters whom the twelve men, 
as soon as they had become a visible, distinct church, I'egularly 
and scripturally embodied, admitted to communion. They unani- 
mously " voted to receive y^ hereafter mentioned sisters as stand- 
ing in full chh. membership with ym." 

He was one of the committee " to wait on Ebenezer Hill and 
invite him to become their Pastor." When the Rev. Mr. Hill, who 
had accepted the call, w\as ordained, he and Hobert Russel were 
voted to be a committee to wait on the honorable council at his 
oi'dination. It was at his house that Mr. Hill was entertained 
while preaching as a candidate for settlement. He was amiable 
and uniform in temperament, as an old gentleman, now in his 
grave, told me, who knew him well. In stature he was about six 
feet high, and wore a white linen cap under his three-cornered hat, 
which was exchanged on the Sabbath for a green one, when he 
went to meeting. 

The genealogy of Jason Dunster, to whom I refer, is clearly 
traced by authentic records to the Rev. Henry Dunster, the fli'st 
President of Harvard College, who was, as one of his contempo- 
raries says, a prodigy of learning, of undoubted piety, energetic in 
character as well as firm in decision. Uncompromising with the 
world, he dared to preach manfully the truths he conscientiously 
believed and sincerely regarded. For this he fell under the ban 
of meddlesome Massachusetts, not yet quite cured of her intoler- 
ance. He was indicted by the grand jury, tried and convicted by 
the court, sentenced to pay a fine, and be admonished on lecture- 
daj', put under bonds for good behavior, and afterwards ordered 
to leave the town for preaching against the ordinance of infant 
baptism. 

In the discipline of the college President Dunster availed him- 
self of the belief of the age in the active agencj^ of malevolent but 
invisible beings, and deemed it proper to apply this, at that time, 
potent instrumentality to the governmeut of the unruly. A tradi- 
tion is still extant among his descendants that one day, being at 



SENTIMENTS AND RESPONSES. 81 

Concord, he suddenly ordered bis horse to be saddled, for he must 
lusttuitly return to Cambridge, On being asked the cause of his 
abrupt departure, he replied that he had received word that the 
students there had raised the devil, and being unable to control his 
exhibitions had become alarmed. This practice, if wo may believe 
the stories of recent college boys, is not obsolete, but understood 
by them in a very diSerent light from that received in former times. 
On arriving at Cambridge he took his well-filled powder-horn, and, 
pouring a part of its contents on the floor, he abjured the presence 
of such a visitor, and to the relief of the affrighted boys directly 
flashed him out of college. It is added that, when thus summarily 
sent away, he was heard to say that he would never trouble any 
of the Dunsters afterwards ; but this consoling assurance, as far 
as I am informed, does not make a part of the tradition in the 
Mason branch of that family. 

It is not wonderful that such a strange mixing up of piety with 
superstition, of truth with delusion, by our fathers, should have had 
a mighty influence on the first settlers of this town. They had 
imbibed from their ancestors many notions of the physical power 
of invisible agents, and given them a large credit for acts of won- 
der. 

It was fully believed by some here a hundred years ago that the 
same old fellow who raised such a rumpus at Cambridge had de- 
posited in the solid rock, near the foot of the high falls on the right 
bank of the Souhegau River, a pot of money, — veritable coins of 
gold, now almost become a myth. How he got it into the solid rock 
they stopped not to inquire. It was there, — so they said and 
believed. How to get it, was the practical inquiry. Deacon Da- 
kin, probably thinking to anticipate his less vigilant neighbors and 
avail himself of the hidden treasure, or, perhaps, to outwit the de- 
positor, resolved to blow the rock away. Making a confederate of 
the blacksmith living close to him, and enjoining strict privacy in 
the matter, they began operations ; the blacksmith to make the 
necessary drills and other tools, the deacon to work and blow until 
the coveted treasure should be brought to light. Laboring dili- 
gently, they persevered until a huge hole was made in the rock ; 
but no wealth, as may be readily conjectured, was ever obtained. 
The hole blowed out I have often seen ; no doubt it remains there 
yet. It was said, when the matter leaked out, that they continued 
to dig until they were admonished that they were taking too large 
a liberty with the depositor's domain. 

Upon a granite stone, mostly covered by lichens, on lot number 
ten, in the eighteenth range, formerly owned by my father, was a 
singular impression, which really was not a natural one. It was 
reputed to have been the track of the same agent who had hid the 
money at the high falls. The story connected with it was, that 
Benjamin Knowlton, who lived on the next lot north, close to the 
old road, which was on the Mason and New Ipswich line, had a 
quarrel with his wife, in which she proved to be his hetter half in 

11 



82 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



reality. The women in those da3-s were some of them athletes as 
well as amazons. I haw seen one, — a daughter-in-law of Jonathan 
Foster, or old Bear Foster, as he was familiarly called, whose lon- 
gevity was mentioned by the gifted orator of the day, in the grove 
this forenoon, — who could lift a barrel of cider, and, holding it on 
her knees, drink from it. 

Knowlton, exasperated at his discomfiture, invoked, as the story 
goes, the help of one whom he believed was more than a match for 
his belligerent wife. Responding promptly to the summons, he made 
his appearance, somewhat to KnoAvlton's alarm. Nothing daunted, 
his wife " pitched in" upon the new-comer, not exactly according 
to the etiquette of the prize ring, but in a way that soon satisfied 
him that it was not best to fight it out. on that line, when, with a sin- 
gle bound he lighted on the stone referred to, some ninety rods dis- 
tant. When a child, I never dared to visit that stone except in com- 
pany with older people. The spot said to be his track was free 
from moss ; but whether sulphur was unfavorable to vegetation, 
or some wag kept it carefully rubbed off to perpetuate the wonder, 
I leave the audience to guess. Such are some of the incoherent 
glimpses of our fathers in times gone by. 

Permit me to close with the sentiment : Mason village, — my 
native place. May his footprints never come nearer to it. 

No. 8. — The Flag of our Union and its Literary Namesake. 

RESPONDED TO BY JAMES R. ELLIOTT, OP BOSTON, MASS. 

No. 9. — Our Common Schools. 

RESPONDED TO BY REV. E. J. EMERY, OF MASON. 

No. 10. — The Homes of our Youth. 

RESPONDED TO BY HON. WILLIAM W. JOHNSON, OF NEW IPSWICH. 

No. 11. — The Memory of John Boynton. 

RESPONDED TO BY REV. D. GOODWIN, OF MASON CENTRE. 

No report of this response having been furnished, I have thought 
it suitable to copy and insert here the following : — 

"Memorial notice of John Boynton, Esq., offered by the Presi- 
dent and adopted by the Trustees of the Worcester County Free 
Institute of Industrial Science, at the annual meeting held June 
5, 1867. 

" The death of John Boynton, Esq., the worthy and respected 
founder of the Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Sci- 
ence, on the 25th of March last, is an event which demands a brief 
memoir on our records. Mr. Boynton was born in Mason, N. H., 
on the 31st of May, 1791. He worked as a farmer with his father, 





^5^^ /^/Pv^^^t;^^^^ 



SENTIMENTS AND RESPONSES. 83 

until near the year 1821. Then he began, at New Ipswich, the 
manufacture and sale of tin ware. In a short time he removed to 
Templeton, where he remained till he retired from active business, 
in 1846. He was representative of the town of Templeton in the 
State Legislature, but declined other public offices. After he dis- 
posed of his business in Templeton, he resided in Athol, where he 
was the first president of the Miller's River Bank in that town. 
He was twice married, and had no children, and was a widower at 
the time of his death. He died unexpectedly and suddenly, at 
Templeton, after an attack of inflammation on the lungs, occa- 
sioned by the exposure of a ride in a severe storm. 

" He had little school instruction, and no literary taste. He 
directed his powers less to intellectual culture than to the business 
by which he sought to acquire wealth. He was modest and re- 
served in his disposition, and quiet and orderly in his habits, and 
he had a reputation for carefulness and moderate thrift, rather 
than for large acquisitions, or a philanthropic spirit. He was re- 
garded as an honest, unambitious man, whose thoughts and care 
did not reach beyond his private affairs and his personal comforts. 
His love of concealment was injurious to his acts of individual 
kindness and his general popularity. This disposition was grati- 
fied, in hiding in his own breast the benevolent enterprise to which 
he intended to devote the largest part of his property, during his 
life. It was, therefore, a subject of general surprise and admira- 
tion, when his reluctance to make display could no longer conceal 
the fact that this severe economist had acquired so large a power 
of public beneficence, and that he had generously parted with it 
during his life, to provide for young men the advantages of scien- 
tific and skilful training in mechanic arts, and in other depart- 
ments of active business, which he himself had not enjoyed, and 
he had not been thought capable of appreciating. It is unneces- 
sary to repeat here, that he was most liberal and accommodating 
in adopting modifications of his original instructions, by which the 
objects of this Institute could be more fully presented. He made 
no provision or suggestion for his personal advantage or distinc- 
tion, or for the honor of his name. No grain of selfishness tar- 
nished the beauty of his noble benefaction. After giving to his 
relatives such donations as he judged proper and sufficient, he 
transferred to this Institute one hundred thousand dollars, care- 
fully invested, for the purposes set forth in his letter of gift. And 
he reserved for himself a small amount of property, sufficient 
for his frugal habits and simple tastes in the residue of his life. 
Several years ago he gave, in his peculiar and quiet manner, ten 
thousand dollars for the public schools in Mason, N. H., where he 
was born. 

"While he lived it was proper to respect his wishes as to any 
personal distinction, in connection witli his gifts. Now that the 
providence of God has withdrawn him (Voui participation in the 
labors and feelings of this life, these trustees have a duty to pre- 



84 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

serve his memory for honor and gratitude. The following resolu- 
tion is, therefore, adopted : — 

'■^ He solved, That the principal building for instruction, of the 
Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science, shall be 
designated and called Boynton Hall, to perpetuate the honored 
name of the founder of the Institute, and to enlarge the good in- 
fluence of his wise and liberal benefaction." 

It may not be improper to remark that Mr. Boynton acted upon 
the principle which has rendered the name of George Peabody 
illustrious for all time, that of bestowing his wealth and adminis- 
tering his estate in his lifetime, not leaving it to be contended for 
in, or wasted by, the expenses incident to lawsuits. He was buried 
in the graveyard at Mason Centre, by the side of his first wife. 
A chaste monument, erected in good taste, marks the appreciation 
in which he was regarded by his friends and fellow-townsmen. 

No. 12. — The Memory of Jonas Chickering. 

No. 13. — The New England and Western States,in the same latitude ; 
may no longitudinal line ever divide them. 

RESPONDED TO BY REV. GEORGE F. MERRIAM. 

Of responses Nos. 8,9, 10, 12, and 13, inclusive, no report has 
been furnished. 

No. 14. — " The Doctors of Mason." 

RESPONSE BY DR. JOHN BACHELDER, OF PLYMOUTH, MASS. 

1. William Barber. — He was born in Worcester, Mass., in 
1767, and obtained a good private medical education. He came 
to Mason in 1789, as a school-teacher. He was paid for his first 
term of teaching, in the south district, $8.12^, besides waiting a 
year and a half before the town voted to pay it.* He commenced 
the practice of medicine in 1791, probably teaching school during 
the preceding winter. In 1793, he purchased of the town a little 
farm, at the rate of $8.67 per acre, which constituted the north- 
east corner of the common or parade-ground on the Brookline 
road, on which he erected a spacious house and other buildings. 
The house is still standing, seventy-five years old. He possessed 
superior conversational powers and social qualities, employing lan- 
guage at once chaste and fluent. Indeed, he was a model gentle- 
man of the old school, and a careful and conscientious physician. 
He continued in practice until disabled by infirmities of age, near 
the close of his life, — about sixty-one years. He died in 1852, 
aged eighty-five years. f . 

* It is probable that this was a disputed arrearage, requiring special 
vote of the town. 

t Dr. Barber was a fellow-boarder with ray father iu the family of Mr. 
John Wiuship, from the time lie commenced practice iu town until my 



SENTIMENTS AND RESPONSES. 85 

2. Joseph Gray. — He was born in Providence, R. I., was prob- 
ably an officer of the Revolutionary army, perhaps surgeon, pro- 
cured a thorough medical education in the best medical school 
then in the United States, first settled in the town of Hudson (then 
Nottingham west), removed to Mason in 1790, when he was 
thirty-nine years of age. He settled on a farm, one mile north of 
the centre of the town, on the Wilton road. It is probable that 
he erected the buildings on his farm, and resided there nineteen 
years. He appears to have been a physician of more than ordi- 
nary attainment and skill, for the time. 

3. Henry Gray. — He was son and successor of the preceding, 
born in Hudson, 1783 ; practised medicine in Mason from 1809 to 
1814, then relinquished his practice to Dr. Johnson, and removed 
to Londonderry, Vt., where he was residing as late as 1859, being 
then seventy-six years of age. 

4. Willis Johnson. — He was born in Sturbridge, Mass., in 
1786. He studied medicine with private tutors three and a half 
years, which is more than the usually required time. He first set- 
tled in Jaffrey, in 1807, but removed to Peterborough the following 
year, and remained there till he removed to Mason, in 1814, where 
he remained until his death, in 1859. He was the only physician 
of the list here mentioned who served in any civil office. He was 
Town Clerk twenty-two years, — longer than the term of any other 
Town Clerk. He was chairman of the Board of Selectmen five 
3^ears, and was Justice of the Peace from 1823 to the time of his 
death, thirt^^-six years. Dr. Johnson was the latest and best 
known of the deceased or removed physicians. He had a fine per- 
sonal appearance, — large, well proportioned, dignified and com- 
manding. He possessed an inexhaustible fund of anecdote, from 
which he was always ready to draw on all proper occasions. He 
never seemed to grow weary in relating reminiscences of the past, 

father became a house-keeper. He then made his residence in his family 
until he was married and began house-keeping-. And after the death of his 
first wife he returned, and resided with my father till his second marriage. 
He was of a large frame, and possessed a vigorous constitution; was 
strong, resolute, and hardy, — qualities which peculiarly fitted him to endure 
the hardships incident to his professional labors in a new and rough coun- 
try, which required him often to travel on snow-shoes over the deep fields 
of snow, saddle-bags on arm, or to breast and struggle his way through 
immense drifts, impassable in any other way. Never, even in the most 
severe weather, did he fail to respond to the calls of the suft'ering. Not 
unfrequentl}', in the early years of his practice, would he find the houses 
of the poor people whom he visited, destitute of all appliances for his con- 
venience, often without candle or lamp, and he would be compelled to 
spread his simples on the hearth, and on his knees before the fire to manip- 
ulate his mixtures by its light; and sometimes he could find no cup or 
vessel in which to mix liquid preparations, but a fragment of a broken 
bean-pot, or of some other article of coarse earthen ware. He was of a 
cheerful, genial disposition, kind and tender-hearted, ready to I'ejoice with 
the prosperous, or to sympathize with the afflicted. 

J. B. H. 



86 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

and thus often inducing his patients to forget their suflferings. He 
exceeded all his predecessors and contemporaries in the extent of 
his practice, which was not limited to the town in which he resided. 
Notwithstanding his charges were extremely moderate, even for 
the times, and his great indulgence towards his debtors — (I have 
even been told that he never asked a debtor for pa^^ment ! Perhaps 
this is not strictly true, but if partially true, it is a circumstance 
worthy of note. What physician at the present day can live in 
the exercise of a like indulgence ?) — yet he acquired a competence, 
and probably no physician in this town had so large a circle of 
friends and so few enemies, in proportion, as he had for many 
years. For a period of forty years, these physicians (above 
named) held almost the entire practice of the town and much out 
of it. 

In the village : — 

1. George Chadwick, 1829-30. 

2. Israel Herrick, 1831-34:. 

3. Otis Hoyt, 1835-37. 

These, all holding a high rank as physicians, and in the popular 
favor, maintained so brief a residence in the town, I will not speak 
of them particularl3\ The doctors of Mason merit honorable 
mention on this festival da}^ — consecrated to the memory of our 
ancestors. I shall only speak of the deceased and removed, who 
cannot speak for themselves. These worthy men filled a large 
place in the imagination of my boyhood. Their presence inspired 
a feeling of awe which I felt in the presence of no other persons. 
They appeared to me more than common mortals, — a kind of 
demigods. The contents of the saddle-bags seemed to possess a 
marvellous potency for good or evil, whose life-giving energy 
could only be unlocked by the magic hand of the medical diviner. 
With trembling eagerness I watched the changing features, while 
his finger rested on the patient's pulse, or his eyes on the protruded 
tongue, to catch the first monition of life or death. Then, the 
jirescription^ — those mysterious mixtures of white, yellow and red, 
which were just the composition required to charm away the 
dreaded foe. The vocabulary, so strange, so awfully' mj^stic ! Was 
it Latin, Greek, Hebrew, or the language of immortals ? Pneu- 
monia, hydrocephalus, hydrothorax, ascites, neuralgia, etc., etc. 
What profound, superhuman learning ! Who could comprehend 
such language ? The names of drugs were equally recondite, — 
cinchonia, antimony tartarized, submuriate, steel. I knew that 
many familiar tools were made of steel ; but what could doctors 
do with steel, except in surgery ? The symjJtoms were of the same 
sort. If the patient recovered, as he generall}^ did, all honor to 
the divine art, and to him who so skilfully wielded it. If he died, 
still I knew there was One from whom proceed the issues of life 
and death, and who could dispose of the one or the other according to 
his behest, and the physician lost nothing in my estimation. His 



SENTIMENTS AND RESPONSES. 87 

skill was as conspicuous, I had faith to perceive, in the one case 
as in the other. 

Now this picture of a childish imagination, although somewhat 
overdrawn, j-et is a tolerably correct representation of the estima- 
tion in which the conscientious physician was held by our grand- 
fathers and grandmothers. The only learned men in their day 
were the minister, the doctor, and the school -master. Lawyers found 
no resting-place among the sternly upright yeomen of old ; and I 
believe they still find it an uncongenial soil. The simple faith and 
integrity which characterized the people then, themselves illiterate, 
tended to exalt the skill and wisdom of those who attended them 
through scenes of suffering and affliction. The physician seemed 
to possess a charmed life. Though in the midst of disease and 
death, who ever heard, years ago, of a physician dying, or sick? 
These events are of recent occurrence. The two Grays removed 
from town, — the elder after a residence of nineteen years. The 
remaining and succeeding physicians enjoyed firm health through 
a long term of practice, — one of sixty-one years, the other of 
forty -five. Who can wonder that they were regarded as a kind of 
demigods by our simple-minded ancestors? But they have at last 
j'ielded to the claims of mortality. Their dust now mingles with 
the dust of those whose mortal woes they sought to alleviate. 

Requiescant in pace ! All honor to a people, so confiding, so 
conscientious, so prompt in remunerating those to whose care they 
committed " their dearest earthly interests." 

LETTER OF EDWARD S. HILL. 

RosEMOND, III., Aug. 19, 1868. 
Dr. Marshall^ Jona. M^issell, Esq., and Associates: — 

Gents : Your letter of invitation to be present at the Centennial 
Celebration in Mason, reached me in due time, and it would be to 
me a source of much pleasure to be present on that occasion, but 
my business is such that I must forego that pleasure. Many years 
have passed since I was a resident of that town, yet it has always 
been a source of great pleasure to me to visit the home of my 
youth. When a boy I used to go to mill for Aaron Wood, Capt. 
Wilson, and other neighbors, whose boys were too small to ride 
astride the horse on top of two or more bags of grain to the Har- 
bor, as the village was then called. Capt. Wood used to pay me 
six cents each time. I put the cents in a small purse, and when I 
had one hundred cents my purse was full ; that was the first money 
I ever earned. The little purse of pennies to me looked large, 
and with it I bought a Bible, which I still possess. 1 have ever 
loved to travel that road, over the Darling Hill to the Village. 
Every tree, every rock, is an old acquaintance, and if any of them 
have been removed, I miss them. I well remember many of those 
who were the active men of the town one hundred years ago : Obadiah 
Parker, Deacon Hall, Capt. Joseph Barrett, Samuel Smith, John 
Swallow, Elder Wm. Elliott, Joshua Davis, and the old chorister, 



88 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Benj. Kendall, and others. Many of those named I think now 
have none of their descendants in the town. Some portions of 
the town have changed but little during the hundred years now 
passed, while in others many and great are the changes made, and 
the progress onward. The old bog meadows and swamps, that 
used to be thought worthless, are now of great value, and the 
time is not far distant when all the productions of the town will 
be brought into use. The shrubs, brakes, ferns, and innumerable 
granite rocks and stones will be a source of profit to the inhabi- 
tants of the town. I love to recall my early schoolmates and 
school days, and the good old strict discipline and drill of the 
schools, when persons passing a school-house would receive a 
graceful bow from the children and j'outh, instead of a volley of 
snow-balls, as is often the case at the present time. I know of 
but few of the many who have emigrated from Mason, whose sub- 
sequent lives have been a disgrace to the land of their birth. 
May the present and the future generations of the town be an im- 
provement on the past. 

Kespectfully, 

Edward S. Hill. 

No. 16. — Twenty years ago. 

Song sung by Mr. and Mrs. Samuel E. Wright, of Templeton, 
Mass., who left Mason to take up their abode in Templeton, 
just twenty years before the Centennial day : — 

TWENTY YEARS AGO. 

I've wandered to the village, Tom, 

I've sat beneath the tree 
Upon the school-house playground, 

Which sheltered you and me ; 
But none were there to gj-eet me, Tom, 

And few were left to know, 
That ijhij'ed with us uj^on the grass 

Some twenty years ago. 

The grass is just as green, Tom ; 

Barefooted boys, at play. 
Were sporting as we did then, 

With spirits just as gay ; 
But the master sleeps uijon the hill, 

Which, coated o'er with snow, 
Aftbrded us a sliding-place 

Just twenty years ago. 

The river's running just as still; 

The willows on its side 
Are larger than they were, dear Tom ; 

The stream appears less wide ; 



SENTIMENTS AND RESPONSES. 89 

The grape-vine swing is ruined now, 

Where once we played the beau, 
And swung our sweethearts, "pretty girlsV 

Just twenty yeai's ago. 

The spring tliat bubbled 'neath the hill. 

Close by the spreading beach, 
Is very low ; 'twas once so high 

That we could almost reach ; 
And kneeling down to get a drink. 

Dear Tom, I started so, 
To see how much that I was changed. 

Since twenty years ago. 

Near by the spring, upon an elm, 

You know I cut your name, 
Your sweetheart's just beneath it, Tom, 

And you did mine the same. 
Some heartless wretch had peeled the bark ; 

'Twas dying sure but slow ; 
Just as that one, whose name was cut, 

Died twenty years ago. 

My lids have long been dry, Tom ; 

But tears came to my eyes, 
I thought of her I loved so well. 

Those early broken ties. 
I visited the old church-yard, 

And took some flowers to strew 
UiJon the graves of those we loved, 
Some twenty years ago. 

Some are in the church-yard laid, 

Some sleep beneath the sea. 
But few are left of our old class. 

Excepting you and me ; 
And when our time shall come, dear Tom, 

And we are called to go, 
. I hope they'll lay us where we played 

Just twenty years ago. 

12 



HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MASON 

FROM 1858 TO 186 8. 

By JOHN B. HILL. 



" Mason, Sept. 5tb, 1868. 

"At a meeting of the Committee of General Arrangements for 
the Centennial Celebration, held this da}^ it was voted unani- 
mously to invite the Hon. John B. Hill to prepare for publication 
tlie proceedings of the Centennial Celebration, Oration, Poem, 
Chronicles, Responses to toasts, etc., so far as they can be ob- 
tained, and to write the histoiy of the town from the j^ear 1858 
to the pi-esent 3'ear, for publication. It was also voted that Abraam 
Wright be a committee to inform Mr. Hill of the above action. 

" Charles P. Richardson, Clerk.'" 

Pursuant to the preceding vote, the foregoing pages have been 
prepared for publication, and I now proceed to complete the his- 
tory of the town, having published, in 1858, a volume of 324 pages, 
comprising the history of the town from the grant of the terri- 
tory by the Masonian proprietors Nov. 1st, 1749, to the close of 
the _year 1858, in which will be found full lists of marriages and 
deaths in the town for one hundred years, lists of revolutionary sol- 
diers, of town officers, and all particulars and incidents in the his- 
tory of the town, both civil and religious, which were deemed to be 
of importance. 

It is said, " that is a happy people whose condition furnishes no 
item for the historian." Such was the state of this people in the 
j^ears 1859 and 1860 ; but in 1861 they felt, with the rest of the 
community, the approach of that great civil war, the magnitude 
and horror of which are without example in the history of the 
world. 

At a town meeting May 16th, 1861, Voted, to appropriate 
$1,500 for the use of volunteers who shall enlist in the service of 
their country for three years. James L. Chamberlin, George 
Taft, John 8. Spalding, Joseph B. Wilson and Willard Jefts were 
appointed a committee to have charge of the disbursement of the 
said appropriation. 

Voted, to present each person, a resident, who shall enlist for 
tln-ee years, with a revolver. Voted, that the increase of the pay 
of soldiers, above the government price of $11.00, be left to the 



HISTORY OF MASON. 91 

discretion of the committee for the assistance to the families of 
the volunteers. 

1861, Oct. 7th. Voted, to pay to the wives of the volunteers en- 
listed in the service of the United States, and their children under 
16 years dependent on them, one dollar per week, not exceeding 
$16 a month, for one family if necessary; and the disbursement 
of the same was left with the above committee. 

1862, Aug. 12. Voted, to pa}^ a bounty of $100 to each volun- 
teer from the town for three years, in the service of the United 
States. Voted, to add $50 to the above bounty, if accepted by the 
proper authorities. Voted, to pay $100 to volunteers for nine 
months ; chose a committee, George W. Scripture, William Clag- 
gett, Jacob Rideout, James Taft, John S. Spalding, to enlist 
volunteers. 

1863, Aug. 10. Voted, to pay to each volunteer, or to each 
drafted man, , or his substitute, out of the town treasur^^, $300, 
not to be paid until ten days after he shall be mustered into the 
service of the United States, and to raise $5,100 for that pur- 
pose. 

1863, Sept. 29. Voted, to rescind the vote passed at the meeting 
Aug. 10, and voted to pay to each drafted or conscripted man, or 
to his substitute, to serve on our quota, $150, agreeably to the 
act of the Legislature of June last, and that the selectmen borrow 
the money for that purpose. 

1863, Dec. 8. Voted, that the town will advance the money to 
pay the volunteers the amount of the National and State bounties, 
also to raise $400 to pay the volunteers in addition to the Na- 
tional and State bounties. Wm. G. Lakin was chosen agent to 
procure the volunteers to fill the quota of men now called for. 

1864, March 8. Voted, to reimburse those who have paid for 
substitutes under the recent draft to the amount of $300, inclu- 
sive of $150 already paid by the town. ' Voted, to reimburse those 
who have paid commutation to the amount of $150. 

1864, Aug. 8. Voted, that the selectmen be instructed to pro- 
cure substitutes to fill our quota under the present call for troops, 
and to pay any sum not exceeding $200 for one year's, $400 
for two years', and $600 for three years' men ; and any person 
enrolled in the town, -by paying the diftei-ence above the State and 
town bounties, shall have the privilege of a substitute, and his 
name be stricken from the enrolment. Voted, that the selectmen 
be authorized to borrow $15,000 for the above object. Voted, 
to sanction the doings of the selectmen in procuring substitutes 
under former calls, and that they be authorized to borrow money 
to pa}' for the same. Voted, to pay $200 to each man that is 
drafted to fill the quota of the town, when he is accepted and 
mustered into the service of the United States, and that the 
town borrow $5,000 for the same. 

1865, March 14. Voted, that the selectmen be authorized to 
procure substitutes to fill future quotas, nwd to burrow money for 



92 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

the same. Voted, that the selectmen be authorized to refund to 
those who have furnished substitutes to fill the town quotas, and 
paid the commutation fee, the amount paid by them for that pur- 
pose and to borrow $5,000 to pay for the same. 

1867, March 12. Voted, topaj^the soldiers who enlisted without 
bounty in the late war, and were credited to the town, $100 a 
year, and in that ratio for the time spent in the service of the 
United States. Voted, to raise $1,800, for that purpose. 



TOWN OFFICERS. 



93 

















































4^ 




























4-3 


4^ 


















4J 




d 

a 

"5 

<u 

"3 

M 


o 
o 


o 


CO M 

« rt s 




n 3 a .2 


-Ih^ 




^ o 

25 W 


ei 

H53 


43 

o 
o 

73 
P 

Ph 

pq 


2" 
H 

P5 


a 
o 

> 


05 <l -. 


a „ 
•3 9 

COH-I 


o 

03 


O 

73 

OJ 

l4 

Ph 

pq 


0) 

a" cj 

^pq 




»3 

a; 




a 


73 

c: 






73 


OJ 


■-§ 


id 


73 


73 

a. 


CO 


s 


Q. 


cZJ_a3 _ 


CO 


d 


— 1 


^^ a 




6 -5 H H ^ 3 ^ H? 3 ►? fe 


a a 






'o 
i2 


i_ 


81 


a 2 












_: 




; 




































00 




s 






'a 




"3 
















rt 




















O 

> 














M 
S 






4J 




s 










>> 




13 












a 
a 

0) 

a, 




a 
a 

o 
u 






73 

s 

o 




w 

73 

cS 

S 
o 






_fcC 

i 




X3 






a 

O 

CO 

73 




a 




3 
a 










c3 










^ 




^ 






.Q 




^ 








r^ 




•^ 




73 






CO 






_fc*_ 






H 




H 






:± 




_± 






Hi 




H 




« 




-3l 






<3 






-lj 
















a 




. 






4.3 








SX) 




tb 






_a 


(^ 




















.3 




<I) 






C3 




o 




a 










S 


a 




o 
















'? 




&C 






iC 




bX) 




;p 




'S 






X3 


§ 




CO 

CD 

pH 

m 
o 

s 




















irj 






i:C 




sc 




,..4 




i— i 






g 


a 

o 
H 












.s 

00 










5 

.2 






o. 

.3 




c3 

5 

3 




C3 

a 




CO 

a 






a 
-a 
o 

i-q 

CO 






O 






'■^ 




< 






A 




!_ 






% 




_!_ 




o 

t-5 




>-5 






_^5 






3 










a 






c 










a 




a 




a 




a 






a 


GO 




o 






6 




o 






o 




o 






o 




o 




o 




o 






o 


^ 




^/) 










m 






CO 




73 






73 




73 




73 




73 






73 












O 








































U 


















































! S 

1 ^ 




^ 






w 




^ 






^ 




^ 






P^ 




^ 




^ 




^ 






tj 


1 a 




« 






o 




w 






pq 




pq 






Pq 




pq 




pq 




w 






pq 


H 




O 






3 
1. 




o 

73 
O 






73 

o 




73 

o 






"5, 

73 

o 




,a 

7) 

o 




-a 

73 

o 




"a 

73 
O 






"Si 
O 
73 

o 






>-5 








•-J 






±2_ 




i-i 






i-s 




1-J 




►^ 




1-5 






^-3 












d 




















4^ 




o 














>> 


o 




C3 






fi4 




oi 






CO 




CO 






3 




3 

4J 




o 














»-5 






>3 










0) 




4^ 






M 








H 




W 






H 


t3 




<i 






-^ 




►-5 






•-5 




1-3 






w 




M 
^ 




CO 

73 




i3 






C3 






^7 






J 




^ 






"^ 




^ 






"T^ 






g 

1-3 




> 






> 






pq 






A 




^ 






kJ 




1. 
















H 






A 






Ci 






o 




r-^ 






W 




CO 






-i< 




U5 




CO 




l--^ 






o6 






>o 






o 




o 






CO 




CD 






o 




CO 




O 




CO 






CO 






CO 






<» 




cao 






CO 




CO 






CO 




CX> 




CO 




00 






OD 



ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS. 



Under this head, it is my purpose to continue the history of the 
churches and societies from 1858 to 1868. 

In the first Congregational Church the Eev. Daniel Goodwin 
continued his services, as stated in the " History of Mason," p. 251, 
until he was installed as pastor, April 18, 1861, and he continued 
in office at the close of the decade. 

In the Christian Church the Rev. Mr. Nasou was succeeded by 
the Rev. Mr. Ham, whose successor was the Rev. Mr. Phillips. 
The loss in this church and society by the death and by the re- 
moval of members from town is probably the reason that since 
the close of Mr. Phillips' ministry there has been no settled pastor 
over this church. 

In the Baptist Church, the ministry of Mr. Cutting closed 
March 31, 1861. In his ministry thirty members were added to 
the church. He was succeeded by the Rev. E. J. Emery, April 
14, 1861. His ministry closed March 21, 1865, during which the 
additions to the church were fourteen. He was succeeded by the 
Rev. L. C. Stevens, April 1, 1865, who still continues in office. 
Under his ministry fort^^-two have been added to the church. 
The number of members, July 30, 1869, was eighty-four. Dea. 
Jonas Adams died Feb. 28, 1859. Dea. Samuel Hartshorn died 
Sept. 16, 1861. Benjamin H. Day and Sewall F. Adams were 
chosen deacons Aug. 31, 1860. Eben Tilton was chosen deacon 
July 3, 1868. In 1866 the church repaired their house of worship 
at an outlay of about $600. In the same year Lucius A. Elliott, 
Esq., of Boston, conveyed to the church, as a free gift, the prop- 
erty including the dwelling-house and out-buildings in the village, 
formerly owned by his father, the late George Elliott Esq., after 
putting the same in good repair, to be used as a parsonage. 

THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN MASON VIL- 
LAGE. 

The death of Dea. Stephen Smith was soon followed by that of 
Dea. Simeon Cragin, who departed this life Sept. 2, 1858, ripe in 
years and graces of Christian character. The loss of these two 
pillars has been deeply felt by the church, in the decade of years 
that has since passed. A spirit of harmony has prevailed among 
its members, with a good degree of outward prosperity, and j^et, 
for a variety of reasons, it has failed of that growth and strength 
for which its friends have hoped. 



ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS. 



95 



After a very brief pastorate, Kev. Samuel J. Austin resigned his 
charge, April 24, 1859, and was succeeded bj^ Rev. George E. 
Fisher, who labored with great zeal and devotion, till Oct. 29, 
1862, when he, too, at his own request, was dismissed from his 
pastoral care. Soon after. Dr. M. N. Root was engaged as stated 
supply, and continued his ministrations till the summer of 1864. 
During the same season (August 27), a call was extended to 
Rev. Andrew Jaquith ; but it reached him only on the eve of his 
call to the heavenly service. In October, 1864, Rev. George, 
F. Merriam, the present pastor, entered upon his ministry, and 
March 9, 1865, was ordained and installed over the church. He 
has found the field a very pleasant one, among the friends of youth, 
and has enjoyed with them one season of special refreshing during 
the winter of 1865, 1866. 

The other officers of the church are. 

Deacon Merrill C. Dodge, chosen Sept. 25, 1857. 
" Marshall Kimball, " Nov. 5, 1858. 
" Charles Baldwin, " Sept. 23, 1859. 
" Charles Wilson, " " " 

The Sabbath school, so long under the charge of Dea. Smith, 
has, since his decease, continued to prosper in the care of super- 
intendents Dea. Dodge, Bro. E. B. Barrett, and Dea. Wilson. 
The present membership of the church is one hundred and ten, of 
which thirty-eight are males, seventy-two females. The number 
belonging to the Sabbath school is about one hundred and twelve. 

Within the past few months the church has had special cause 
for gratitude to its friends, and, above all, to Him who putteth 
liberal things into the hearts of His people, for the gifts of a new 
communion service, from Mrs. E. C. Brown, of Boston, and a par- 
sonage from George D. Cragin, Esq., of New York. Both of 
these presents were peculiarly welcome, and the latter, purchased 
at a cost of three thousand dollars, is a munificent token of the 
giver's kind remembrance of his native village, and love for the 
church, to which, from its first organization, his parents were so 
devoted. 

The old Roman mother, pointing to her children, said, "These 
are my jewels ;" and with similar spirit this church cherishes the 
memory of her sainted ones. Among others, slie mourns the early 
death of Rev. Edwin E. Merriam, who was for years a member of her 
Sabbath school, and though unable to mark any time when he did 
not clierish Christian hope, was always accustomed to speak with 
tender interest of the religious impressions here received. He 
afterwards united with the church in Plymoutli, Mass., graduated 
at Amherst College in 1858, with high reputation as a scholar and 
a writer ; taught in the South and West ; graduated at Union The- 
ological Seminary, New York, in 1863 ; and was soon afterwards 
called to the Presbyterian Church in Salem, Penn., where among 
a loving people, and with the brightest prospects of usefulness, he 
died, Feb. 17, 1865, aged twenty-eight years. His end was peace. 



96 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



List of Marriages from Nov., 1857, to close of the Year 
1868, Taken from the Town Records, 

1857, Nov. 22. George R. Elliott, Mason. Eliza E. Stevens, 

Mason. 
" . " 26. Leonard Elliott, Pepperell. Augusta S. Hodg- 

man, Mason. 
" Dec. 17. Henry Kirke, Mason. Sarah Gardiner, Mason. 
" " 31. Kendell Davis, Sharon. Lucinda Chamberlin, 

Mason. 

1858, Jan. 4. Edmund Holden, Mason. Elizabeth Flagg, 

Mason. 

" April 15. Edmund Blood, Townsend. Nancy W. Simonds, 
Town send. 

" " 22. John Campbell, Mason. Lavinia Hemphill, 
Mason. 

" June 27. Moses Towne, Townsend. Nancy Razen, Town- 
send. 

" July 4. Charles H. Hanaford, West Brookfield. Jennie 
A. Nason, Mason. 

" Sept. 20. James H. Furgeson, Mason. Ellen M. Kim- 
ball, Mason." 

" Oct. 1. Elbridge Howe, Peterboro'. Henrietta Felch, 

Mason. 

" " 5. George M. Frederic, Mason. Mary J. Wright, 

Mason. 

" Nov. Joshua J. Hobart, Mason. Melvina S. Davis, 

Mason. 

" " 17. William G. Ober, Mason. Alice C. Glover, 

Mason. 

" " 20. Benjamin F. Lusk, Mason. Lucretia Butler, 

Mason. 

" "• 25. Edward B. Richardson, Mason. Harriet S. 

Watson, Mason. 

" " " Abram H. Seaver, Mason. Martha F. Rich- 

ardson, Mason. 

" Dec. 28. John R. Lynch, Mason. Abbie J. Kimball, 
Mason. 

" " 30. Alfred M. White, Mason. Marietta Holt, 

Mason. 

1859, Feb. 29. Benjamin F. March, Mason. Ellen Finley, 

Mason. 
" April 15. Perry Farrar, Mason. Mary Blood, Mason. 
" May 15. Marshall Kimball, Mason. Loisa J. Allen, 

Mason. 
" Nov. 20. John S. Bennett, Nashua. Sarah J. Dinsmore, 

Nashua. 



MARRIAGES. 



97 



1859. 


Dec. 


a 


li 


1860, 


Jan. 


(1 


June 



4. Elisha B, Barrett, Mason. Carrie McClure, 
Mason. 
20. Rufus Smith, Danville. Susan A. Ingalls, 

Mason. 
17. Joseph B. Robbing, Mason. Helen M. Wyman, 
•Mason. 
2. C. N. Bennett, Boston. Olive M. Kelley, 
Pittsfield, N. H. 
" " 30. Elbridge H. Howe, New Ipswich. Carrie H. 

Baldwin, New Ipswich. 
" " " Charles M. Pierce, Lempster. S. Lizzie Howe, 

New Ipswich. 
" Sept. 20. Samuel L. Gerould, Stoddard. Lucy A. Mer- 

riam. Mason. 
" Oct. 8. John K. Mills, Mason. Elizabeth B. Holt, 

Mason. 
" Dec. 30. James P. Nutting, Mason. Mary A. Phillips, 
Fall River. 

1861, Jan. 1. William W. Pritchard, Mason. Emeline E. Liv- 

ingston, Mason. 
" " 28. Jeremy Weston. Lydia J. Karkin. 
" May 12. Edmund Merriam, Mason. Maria A. Pierce, 

New Ipswich. 
'* " 19. Charles H. Dix, Mason. Jannette Sherwin, 

Mason. 
" July 4. Aaron Wheeler, Fitchburg. Dorcas Sawyer, 

Mason. 
" Nov. 26. Morton L. Barrett, Mason. Rhoda M. Jones, 

Mason. 
" " 26. Nelson L. Barrett, Mason. Hattie A. Russell, 

New Ipswich. 

1862, March 27. Albert Taylor, Wilton. Mary E. Tibbetts, 

Mason. 
" April 6. Thomas Jackson, Wilton. Anna R. Blood, 

Mason. 
" •' 10. Charles L. Robbins, Mason. Abby J. Davis, 

Mason. 
" June 10. John A. Wright, Keene. Julia A. McCoy, 

Gilsum. 
" July 5. Elisha K. Frederick, Mason. Emeline V. Rolf, 

Sharon. 
" " 18. Henry B. Hosmer, Mason. Hattie E. Elliott, 

Mason. 
" Aug. 14. Milton H.Hardy, Mason. Mary Jane Marshall, 

Mason. 
" " 16. George D. Reed, Mason. Eliza Elliott, Mason. 
" Nov. 11. Samuel H. Wheeler, Mason. Augusta Camp- 
bell, Manchester. 
13 



98 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

1862, Dec. 31. Luther A. Blood, Mason. Harriet A. Fuller, 

Cliarlestown, Mass. 

1863, Jan. 1. Henry Kendall, Shirley. Mary E. Felton, 

Mason. 
" " 1. Joseph McGown, Shirley. Clementine E. Bax- 
ter, Mason. 
" Feb. 10. Lyman K. Sawtell, Springfield, Mass. Mary 

Jane Whitehead, Rindge. 
" " 11. George H. Goodwin, Mason. Mary Holbrook, 

Groton Junction. 
" May 24. Charles W. Tarbell, New York. Sarah D. 

Goodwin, Mason. 
" June 6. J. Harrison Hutchinson, Wilton. Emma T. 
Moore, Temple. 
Warner Russell, Mason. Phebe Elliott, Mason. 
Bradley Stone, Milford. Harriet E. J. Temple, 

Milford. 
Adin A. Smith, Wilmington, Vt. Lucy Ellen 

Tenney, New Ipswich. 
William ' S. White, Mason. Mary M. Emery, 

New Ipswich. 
Levi Johnson, Deering, N. H. Hannah F. 

Warby, North Chelmsford. 
Oren J. Manning, Townsend. Martha Camp- 
bell, Mason. 
James M. Nutting, Mason. Susan A. Lobdel, 

Mason. 
Jacob H. Bachelder, Mason. Maria S. Hodg- 

man. Mason. 
Perr}' Farrar, Mason. Sophronia N. Tarbell, 

Mason. 
Charles A. Wright, New Ipswich. Mary E. J. 

Sanders, Mason. 
Marquis L. Holt, Mason. Rocene Sherwin, 

Ma-son. 
Joseph B. Wilson, Mason. Persis S. Blodgett, 

Mason. 
Jonas Richards, Jr., Mason. Isabel Ferman, 
Townsend. 
" 17. Seth Preston, Jr., Mason. Katie A. Fuller, 

Mason. 
" 27. George L. Creighton, Mason. Martha M. Hol- 
den, Maspn. 
Nov. 20. Edward J. O'Donnell, Mason. Nellie F. Pres- 
cott, Mason. 
" 20. Frank L. Peabody, Mason. Emeline A. Pres- 

cott, Mason. 
" 24. George Cutting, Fitzwilliam. Jane McGown, 
Mason. 



(( 


(I 


27. 


u 


u 


27. 


u 


(( 


30. 


(( 


July 


19. 


l( 


u 


19, 


(( 


Nov. 


1. 


1864, 


, Feb. 


11. 


(( 


(( 


18. 


(( 


u 


18. 


(( 


March 8. 


(I 


<( 


20. 


t( 


July 


28, 


(( 


Aug. 


15 



MARRIAGES. 99 

1865, Feb. 9. John Richards, Mason. Winfred Richards, 

Townseud, Mass. 
" " 27. George E. Smith, Ashby, Mass. Eliza A. 

Badger, Mason. 
" " 28. Moses C. Wilson, Sharon. Amelia W. 

S-ylvestQr, New Ipswich. 
" " 28. Artemas Sylvester, Jr., New Ipswich. Hannah 

P. Wilson, Sharon. 
" April 2. Franklin B. Heald, Mason. Emma E. Pritch- 

ard. Mason. 
" May 8. Prucius W. Manley, New Ipswich. Martha A. 

Swallow, New Ipswich. 
" June 10. John S. Sargeant, Milford. Abby A. Putnam, 

Mason. 
" Aug. 19. Abbott A. Forbush, Peterborough. Lizzie M. 

Putnam, Mason. 
" " 31. Charles Russell, Appleton, Wis., Sarah A. 

Wilder, Mason. 
" Sept. 20. Henry L. Stone, Groton. Juliette R. Bond, 

New Ipswich. 
" Oct. 24. Samuel N. Barrett, Mason. Eliza Brown, 

Ashby. 
" " 29. Herbert Willard, Ashby. Abby J. Robbins, 

Mason. 

1866, April 19. Samuel H. Oliver, Mason. Emma E. Sawtell, 

Mason. 

" May 16. Samuel McGown, New Ipswich. Charlotte L. 
Johnson, New Ipswich. 

" June 15. George W. Russell. Sarah A. Ewing. 

" " 16. Oliver Felix, Mason. Mary Percy, Mason. 

" " 16. Stephen Austin, Mason. Lydia S. Boynton, 
Mason. 

" " 16. Mitchell Lafayette, Mason. Eveline L. Preue, 
Mason. 

" July 5. Alfred J. Morse, Mason. Almira J. Upton, 
Peterborough. 

" " 8. William O. Robbins, Mason. Martha Jane 

Barrett, Ashby. 

" " 31. Michael P. Donley, New Ipswich. Hattie A. 

Christie, New Ipswich. 

" Dec. 2. Joseph C. Mason, Mason. Hattie J. Kings- 
bur}^, Mason. 

" " 5. Francis A. Spaulding, South Reading. Orinda 

York, Peterborough, 

" " 13. Abner Holden, Mason. Rachel Boynton, Ma- 

son. 

" " 25. George E. Blood, Mason. Lizzie Gailey, Ma- 

son. 



100 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

1867, Jan. 1. George H. Livingston, Weymouth, Mass. 

Maiy J. Pierce, Mason. 

" " 2. John Rlioades, Fayette, Iowa. Ruvina M. Cra- 

gin. Mason. 

" " 3. Franklin B. Holden, Mason. Fannie L. Ken- 

dall, Jaffrey. 
" 20. George S. Smith, Nashua. Almira S. Flagg, 
Mason. 

" Feb. 3. Amasa A. Wright, Ashby. Lizzie Susan Badger, 
Ashby. 

" " 3. Joseph A. Cragin, Temple. Mary E. Sheldon, 

Temple. 

" " 23. Patrick Murphy, Mason. Lizzie Lary, Mason. 

" April 11. Job Siiattuck, Mason. Azubah F. Davis, Ma- 
son. 

" " 30. George R. Elliott, Mason. Sarah Austin, 

Mason. 

" Oct. 4. Ai Richards, Mason. Ellen E. Day, Town- 
send. 
" 24. Otis P. Pratt, New Ipswich. Emma C. Ball, 
Mason. 

" " 30. Edmund B. Newell, Mason. Fannie A. Fessen- 

den. New Ipswich. 

" Nov. 9. Joseph Chamberlin, Mason. Elizabeth Putnam, 
Mason. 

" Dec. 7. True Robbins, Mason. Louisa Ames, Mason. 

" " 17. Louis H. Robbins, New Ipswich. Abbie E. 

Wheeler, New Ipswich. 

1868, Jan. 25. Anthony Dene-^ere, Mason. Matilda St. Peters, 

Mason. 
" April 22. Enville J. Emery, Mason. Melissa Emery, 

Mason. 
" June 2. T. E. Oxford, Fitchburg, Mass. Genevieve 

A. Becker, Fitchburg, Mass. 
" " 10. Daniel P. Blake, Westminster, Mass. Melissa 

R, Newell, Mason. 
" July 2. William F. March, Mason. Adeliza Bolton, 

West Boylston, Mass. 
" " 5. Henry A. Barker, Dublin, N. H. Abbie J. 

Lovejo3% Mason. 
" Aug. 19. Henry W. Wilson, New Ipswich, N. H. Viola 

M. Davis, New Ipswich, N. H. 
" Sept. 24. Otis C. Elliott, Mason. S. Georgia Nutting, 

Mason. 



DEATHS. 



101 



List of Deaths from Jan. 1, 1858, to Dec. 31, 1868. Taken 
from the Town Records, corrected by the Records of the 
Clergymen. 

Cummings McClure, 27. 
Infant child of Levi Joslin, 5 ms. 
John H. Sawtell, dropsy. 
Infant child of Jona. Connell, 9 mos. 
John P. French, suicide, 34. 
Hannah Adams, 62. 
Charles O. Hodgman, suicide, 34. 
Elnathan D. Boynton, palsy, 51. 
AnnaC. Henr}^, convulsions, 1. 
Peter Mullen, drowned, 24. 
Infant child of Thomas Ganey, 8 days. 
Willie P. Adams, scarlet fever, 5. 
Augustus E. Chapman, scarlet fever, 11. 
Charles 0. Robbins, scarlet fever, 8. 
Hattie M. Robbins, scarlet fever, 4. 
Caroline E. Claggett, scarlet fever, 7. 
Ella Florence Wilson, scarlet fever, 6. 
Addie E. Adams, scarlet fever, 5. 
Charles W. Wilson, scarlet fever, 3. 
Ruth Harding, old age, 95. 
James D. Goddard, scarlet fever, 7. 
Simeon Cragin, consumption, 71. 
Dr. Willis Johnson, heart disease, 71. 
Michael Grad}^, scarlet fever, 3. 
Lorena Russell, consumption, 22. 
Timothy Jones, 78. 
Mr. Ward, 23. 

Eunice B. Hosmer, drops}^ 77. 
Jonas Adams, fever, 74. 
Micah Russell, consumption, 67. 
Clara E. Merriam, 9 ms. 
Mrs. Abigail Hill, old age, 87 ys. and 6 ms. 
Irish child, 6 ms. 
Susan Cragin, consumption, 25. 
30. Mrs. S. Tarbell, old age, 69. 
Martha Merriam, 43. 
Andrew Elliott, cholera, 69. 
Ruth Withee, consumption, 71. 
Child of Wm. Claggett, fever, 1. 
Martha Russell, mortification, 50. 
DeWitt C. Claggett, fever, 1. 
Noah Winship, consumption, 74. 
Asa B. Hodgman, consumption, 34. 



1858, Jan. 


1. 


(( (( 


1. 


" Mar. 


18. 


(( u 


20. 


(( (( 


31. 


" April 1. 
" May 10. 
" " 30. 


" June 


1. 


(( (I 


7. 


(( (( 


7. 


i( 4( 


10. 


(( <.i 


16. 


li a 


26. 


(( (( 


26. 


" July 


4. 
6. 


(( (( 


10. 


a u 


14. 


(( (( 


21. 


" Aug 


26. 


" Sept 
" Oct. 


21. 
2. 


" Nov. 


1. 


(( u 


7. 


" Dec. 


11. 


1859, Feb. 


14. 


u u 


18. 


(( (( 


27. 


" Mar. 


7. 


(( (I 


8^ 


" May 
" June 


2<r. 

20. 

28. 


(( u 


30. 


" Aug 


12. 


ii, LL 


16. 


(( (( 


16. 


(( (( 


29. 


" Sept. 
" Oct. 


11. 
3. 


a !.(, 


12. 


li il. 


14. 



102 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

1859, Nov. 23. William Webber, cancer, 77. 

" " 25. Zebiah Fletcher, consumption, 36. 

" Dec. 9. Elijah Davis, old age, 80. 
" " 12. Eunice Davis, old age, 80. 

1860, Jan. 19. James Gordon, consumption, 19. 
" Mar. 3. Mary Wheeler, consumption, 44. 

" " 7. Dea. Amos H. Hosmer, consumption, 47. 
" " 16. Maria Withington, consumption, 16. 
" " 19. Harry Larken, fits, 5 ms. 

" July 21. Mary Morse, dropsy, 63. 

[No record of this year later than July 21.] 

1861, Jan. 9. Mrs. E. K. Hardy, 39. 

" " 21. Lucy M. Cutter, consumption, 20. 

" " 29. Perley Sanders, 84. 

" Feb. 5. Edward A. Hurdy, fever, 14. 

" " 20. Edwin B. Watson, 7 mos. 

" Mar. 10. Luther Elliott, 47. 

" " 10. Timothy P. Elliott, 42. 

" " 31. James Proctor, old age, 83. 

" " 31. Hannah Taft, old age, 75. 

" " 31. Sarah Felt, fever, 17. 

" April 7. John Baldwin, lung fever, 60, 

" May 2. Sarah Lawrence, 70. 

" June 2. Wilson, scarlet fever, 3. 

" July 29. Hannah Fisher, 3 ms. 

" Aug. 29. Rebecca Russell, consumption, 23. 

" Sept. 14. Samuel Hartshorn, consumption, 78. 

" " 19. Martha Green, fever, 23. 

" Oct. 5. Nancy Flagg, drops}', 69. 

" Nov. 11. Charles Prescott, fever, 58. 

" " 12. Henry E. Blood, fever, 22. 

" " 21. Daniel L. Merriam, fever, 20. 

1862, Mar. 10. Morton Ingalls, fever, 21. 
" " 13. Henry Russell, 17. 

" May 19. Roger Weston, consumption, 73. 

" June 26. Jennie McClure, fever, 6. 

" " 29. Melinda B. Wilson, 49. 

" Aug. 25. George W. Watson, 25. 

" Sept. 14. Amos Robbins, old age, 87. 

" " 22. F. M. Knapp, cholera infantum, 4 ms. 

" Oct. 7. Mary Winship, fever, 31. 

" Nov. 12. Thankful Sawtell, dropsy, 61. 

" " 12. Charles E. Merriam, in army, 19. 

" " 27. Hannah H. Merriam, erysipelas, 52. 

" Dec. 2. Ephi-aim Russell, old age, 97. 

" " 13. Mary Darling, heart disease, 73. 

1863, Jan. 11. Edward Lamb, diphtheria, 2. 

" " 15. Ira M. Whitaker, measles, in army, 17. 



863, 


, Jan. 19. 


t( 


Feb. 8. 


(( 


" 12. 


(( 


" 17. 


u 


" 17. 


(( 


" 21. 


(( 


" 22. 


(( 


Mar. 14. 


(( 


" 20. 


u 


" 21. 


^i 


" 23. 




April 22. 
" 24. 




May 6. 

" 25. 


(( 


June 10. 


(( 


" 19. 


(( 


« 28. 


(( 
(( 


July 2. 
" 31. 


(i 
(( 


Aug. 1. 
" 2. 


(; 


" 10. 


(( 


" 18. 


(( 


" 21. 


u 


" 21. 


(( 


" 21. 


(( 


" 22. 


(( 


" 23. 


a 


" 26. 


(( 


" 26. 




Sept. 5. 
9. 


(( 


" 12. 


u 


" 15. 


u 


" 16. 


u 


" 19. 


u 


" 26. 


(( 


" 28. 


ii 


" 28. 


(( 


" 30. 


u 


" 30. 


(( 


Oct. 1. 


(( 


5. 


kl 


" 13. 


it, 


" 18. 


(( 


" 28. 


(( 


" 31. 



DEATHS. 103 

Abijah Elliott, disease of kidneys, 61. 

Abby Hayward, consumption, 30. 

Lucinda Chambevlin, 67. 

James W. Merriam, 26. 

Hannah Webber, old age, 74. 

Infant child of G. L. Blood, lung fever. 

Sally Easterbrook, 80. 

John B. Smith, diphtheria, in army, 18. 

Lyman L. Sanders, diphtheria, in army, 19. 

Mary Merriam, fever, QG. 

Mary Russell, dropsy, 79. 

"Wm. Eastman, 53. 

Calvin Amsden, consumption, 50. 

Wife of Joseph White, 54. 

Joanna Newell, 66. 

David Amsden, old age, 82. 

Cynthia Bachelder, consumption, 37. 

George Martin, consumption, 81. 

Eliza Chamberlin, 60. 

Thomas Russell, apoplexy, 77. 

Claytie O. Scripture, cholera infantum, 2. 
Joseph White, apoplexy, 67. 

James Davis, died in army, 40. 

George L. Adams, chronic diarrhoea, 37. 

Frederic P. Scripture, cholera infantum, 1. 

Gustavus Johnson, d3^sentery, 66. 

Calvin Davis, consumption, 58. 

Charles E. Russell, dysentery, 10. 

Frankie Scripture, cholera infantum, 2 ys. 10 mos. 

Lydia Hunt, gravel, 89. 

Emogene Russell, 8. 

Bell C. Pierce, consumption, 19. 

Eunice Holden, dysentery, 67. 

Rachel Barber, old age, 94 ys. 6 mos. 

Samuel Withington, dysentery, 77 ys. 9 mos. 

Freddie L. Richardson, " 2 ys. 8 mos. 

Lucy A. Hosmer, " 4 ys. 11 mos. 

Esther Flagg, dysentery, 70. 

Robbins, croup, 3. 

Adams, diphtheria, 4. 

Nutting, "2. 

Robbins, croup, 1. 

Azubah Withington, dysentery, 83. 
Clarrisa A. Barrett, 33". 
Wm. W. Pritcliard, consumption, 37. 
Harriet B. Hosmer, consumption, 22. 
Mary B. Farrar, dysentery, 53. 
Finis D. Creighton, fever, 10. 



104 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

1863, Nov. 9. Albert Taft, apoplexy, 57. 

" 11. Child of James S. Tuttle, 3 mos. 

" " McGown, diphtheria, 3. 

" Dec. 5. Josiah Flagg, fever, 78. 

" " 11. Thomas Wilson, fever, 85. 

" " 18. Orie H. Elliott, diphtheria, 3 mos. 

" " 20. Maria Whitaker, consumption, 38. 

" " 28. Lydia Tarbell, old age, 78. 

" " 31. Albert F. Davis, diphtheria, 21. 

1864, Jan. 8. Lucy Wilson, old age, 86. 

" " 21. John E. Stearns, chronic diarrhoea, 32. 

" " 24. Elva E. Blood, dropsy of brain, 3ys. 10 mos. 

" " 24. Lucy Scripture, 82. 

" " 26. Sarah G. Gilman, diphtheria, 3. 

" " Patrick Mullen, colic, 1. 

" Feb. 2. Hannah Shattuck, consumption, 68. 

" " 19. Emma F. Gilman, diphtheria, 9 ys. 6 mos. 

" Mar. 25. Mary Heald, palsy, 70. 

" " 28. Bobbins, whooping cough, 2 mos. 

" " Sarah Lobdell, diphtheria, 6. 

DIED IN THE ARMY. 

Ralph Weston, 
Granville Robbins, 
Nathaniel Smith, 58. 
Albert Austin, 
Charles Baldwin, 
Barzillai Russell. 

Etta M. Wright, diphtheria, 9. 

Wife of Oliver Allen, 66. 

Son of Wallace Pritchard, 2 ys. 

H. Dix, in rebel prison, 25. 

Mrs. Mary Kimball, 68. 

A French child, 4 or 5 ys. 

Mr. Ellis, 45. 

Widow of Joel Ames, 89. 

Son of Leander Nutting, 27. 

William Davis, 58. 

Clemena Winship, 37. 

Mr. Worcester, 80. 

Francis Cragin, 37. 

John Withee, 79. 

Lucy Barrett, old age, 86. 

Daughter of Mr. Fontaine, 20. 

Sally Smith, consumption, 71. 

Sarah E. Farwell, croup, 3 mos. 

Luther Livingston, heart disease, 67. 

Olive A. Wilson, consumption, 39. 





Apr. 


15. 
25. 




May 


11. 

18. 




(( 


31. 




(( 


31. 




July 


28. 




Aug. 


25. 




Sept, 


, 3. 

5. 




u 






Dec. 


5. 


(65 


, Jan. 


18. 




(I 


22. 




Feb. 


6. 




u 


7. 




it 


14. 




(( 


15. 




Mar. 


13. 



DEATHS. 105 

1865, Mar. 13. Child of Mr. Reed, 
" " 25. Lucy Robbins, 85. 

" " 30. Benoni C. Kimball, diabetes, 74. 

" " Harriet Allen, 67. 

" Apr. 24. Judith, wife of Abijah Eaton, 78. 

" June 23. Sarah, widow of Andrew Elliott, 79. 

" Aug. 16. Wife of John Felt, 72. 

" Sept. Abial A. Nutting, dysentery, 61. 

" Oct. Infant son of Charles Lynch, 7 mos. 

" " 11. Abijah Eaton, 80. 

" Nov. 24. Freddie Arthur Claggett, croup, 2. 

" Dec. 17. Child of E. B. Hosraer, 2 mos. 

1866, Jan. 2. James A. Wyman, consumption, 22. 
" " 12. Mrs. Martha Burdick, 33. 

" Feb. 10. Wm. Darling, 79. 

Child of James Tuttle, 2 mos. 

' " July 15. Mary, widow of Samuel Hill, old age, 86. 

" Aug. 11. Child of Abial Nutting, 

" " Child of Whitney, 11 mos. 

" " 20. Amelia Adams, consumption, 20. 

" " 28. Clara A. Russell, consumption, 17. 

" Sept. 22. Infant child of S. H. Wheeler, 5 weeks. 

" » 8. Ellen Sheridan, 15. 

" Oct. 31. Amos Flagg, 84. 

" Dec. Wm. P. Smith, dropsy, 62. 

1867, Jan. 3. Sarah W. Adams, 78. 
" Feb. 9. Sarah Brasen, 65. 

" " 13. Lillie Adams, congestion of brain, 1 m. 

" " 14. John S. Proctor, fever, 50.' 

" Mar. 8. Frank M. Pierce, rupture, 13. 

" " 10. Polly Carlton, old age, 89. 

" " 11. Son of Charles Lynch, 2 days. 

" " 15. Katie F, Preston, consumption, 22 ys. 9 mos. 

" Apr. 15. James Gailey, consumption, 21. 

" " 22. Anne J. Emery, suicide, 39. 

" " 24. George Tibbetts. 

" May 18. Charles Hayes, diabetes, 11. 

" " 18. Dailey, 5 mos. 

" June 6". George Mansfield, 1 day. 

" Jill} French child. 

" Aug. 10. Abigail P. Winship, heart, 78. 

" Oct. 5. Sally Merriam, paralysis, 79. 

" Nov. 10. Patrick Murphy, heart, 30. 

" Dec. 19. Seth Preston, Jr., accident, 24. 

1868, Feb. 17. Elizabeth Hodge, old age, 90. 
" Apr. 26. Sophia Hunt, suicide, 59. 

" May 17. Mrs. Lucy Wyman, 28. 

" May 18. Infant child of Wm. Crighton, 
14 



106 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

1868, June 14. Joel Smith, consumption, 50. 

" July 15. Alfred Davis, sunstroke, 61. 

" " 19. John Gordon, 38. 

" Aug. 8. Mrs. Mary Nutting, 32. 

" " 10. Infant son of Samuel N. Barrett, 4 mos. 

" Sept. 6. Preston Elliott, 10. 

" Oct. 26. Infant child of Otis Robbins, 1 month. 

The record of births in the town-books is so deficient and imper- 
fect, as not to be worth publishing. 



A Report of the Nunnber and Naines of Soldiers Furnished 
by the Town of 3Iason, for the Suppression of the JRe- 
bellion, as inade out Feb. 29, IS 66, by Charles B. Fres- 
cott, 

Thomas E. Marshall, Co. G-, 2d Reg't, June 5, 1861. Wounded 
July 2, 1863. Promoted to second Sei'geant, and then through 
every grade up to Captain. Re-enlisted January 5, 1864. In that 
year he was placed in command of a companj^ of sharp-shooters, 
in which he served till the close of the war. 

Charles H. Dix, Co. G, 2d Reg't, June 5 1861. Discharged 
for disability, Dec. 3, 1861. 

Charles E. Foster, Co. G, 2d Reg't, June 5, 1861. Re-enlisted 
January 1, 1864. 

Levi J. Josslin, Co. G, 2d Reg't, June 5, 1861. Promoted 
Corporal. Mustered out June 21, 1864. 

John Kenney, Co. G, 2d Reg't, June 5, 1861. Mustered out 
June 21, 1864. 

Augustus G. Nutting, Co. G, 2d Reg't, June 5, 1861. Mus- 
tered out June 21, 1864. 

Andrew Corbit, Co. H, 2d Reg't, June 5, 1861. Deserted at 
Concord, May 5, 1863. 

Michael C. Haley, Co. H, 2d Reg't, June 5, 1861. Promoted 
Corporal. Mustered out Sept. 21, 1863. 

Marquis L. Holt, Co. E, 3d Reg't, August 23, 1861. Promoted 
Corporal. Re-enlisted Feb. 15, 1864. 

Ephraim Crandall, Co. C, 4th Reg't, Sept. 18, 1861. Died of 
disease June 23, 1863. 

Romango L. Nutting, Corporal, Co. E, 6th Reg't, Nov. 28, 
1861. Not officially accounted for. 

Henry A. Jones, Co. E, 6th Reg't, Nov. 28, 1861. Re-enlisted 
Dec. 25, 1863. 

Seth Preston, Co. B, 8th Reg't, Dec. 20, 1861. Re-enlisted 
Jan. 4, 1864. 



NAMES OF SOLDIERS. 



107 



Henry Shattuck, Co. B, 8th Reg't, Dec. 20, 18G1. Died at 
Camp Parapet, La., Aug. 6, 1862. 

Robert G. Phiimey, Co. E, 8th Reg't, Dec. 20, 1861. Promoted 
Corporal July, 1862. Wounded Oct. 27, 1862. Promoted Ser- 
geant Feb. 14, 1863. Discharged for disability Nov. 27, 1864. 

George Cutting, • Corporal, 1st Light Battery, New Hamp- 
shire Volunteers, Sept. 26, 1861. Reduced to the rank. Mustered 
out Sept. 25. 1864. 

Willard C. Burdick, 1st Light Battery, New Hamp- 
shire Volunteers, Sept. 26, 1861. Mustered out Sept. 25, 
1864. 

George H. Dix, New Hampshire Battalion, 1st New England 
Cavalry, Oct. 24, 1861. Missing Oct. 12, 1863. 

David Moran, New Hampshire Battalion, 1st New England 
Cavalry, Dec. 24, 1861. Re-enlisted Jan. 5, 1864. 

Enoch Leavitt, New Hampshire Battalion, 1st New England 
Cavalry, Dec. 24, 1861. Re-enlisted Jan. 5, 1864. 

Patrick O'Brien, New Hampshire Battalion, 1st New England 
Cavalry, Dec. 24, 1861. Not officially accounted for. 

Milton H. Hardy, Sergeant, Co. G, 13th Reg't, New Hampshire 
Volunteers, Sept. 19, 1862. Commissioned as Lieutenant. 

John G. Blood, Corporal, Co. G, 13th Reg't, New Hampshire 
Volunteers, Sept. 19, 1862. 

Joel E. Boynton, Co. G, 13th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteers, 
Sept. 19, 1862. Died Feb. 25, 1863. 

Wm. W. Bailey, Co. G, 13th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteers, 
Sept. 19, 1862. Wounded severely June 3, 1864. 

William D. Carr, Co. G, 13th Reg't, New Hampshire Volun- 
teers, Sept. 19, 1862. Promoted to Corporal. Wounded severely, 
May 13, 1864. Died of wounds, at Point Lookout, Md., June 12, 
1864. 

Edward W. Davis, Co. G, 13th Reg't, New Hampshire Volun- 
teers, Sept. 19, 1862. Wounded Sept. 29, 1864. Died of wounds, 
at Hampton, Va., Oct. 12, 1864. 

Charles H. Russell, Co. G, 13th Reg't, New Hampshire Volun- 
teers, Sept. 19, 1862. 

George D. Reed, Co. G, 13th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteers, 
Sept, 19, 1862. Discharged Nov. 29, 1863. 

Ralph Weston, Co. G, 13th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteers, 
Sept. 13, 1862. Died of disease March 21, 1863. 

Ira M. Whittaker, Co. G, 13th Reg't, New Hampshire Volun- 
teers, Sept. 19, 1862. Died of disease, Jan. 15, 1863. 

Charles A. Austin, Co. I, 13th Reg't, New Hampshire Volun- 
teers, Sept. 20, 1862. Discharged April 27, 1863. 

E. T. Elliott, Co. I, 13th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteers, 
Sept. 20, 1862. 

Joseph P. P^lliott, Co. 1, 13th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteers, 
Sept. 20, 1862. 



108 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

M. V. B. Elliott, Co. I, 13th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteers, 
Sept. 20, 1862. 

Erastus E. Elliott, Co. I, 13th Reg't, New Hampshire Volun- 
teers, Sept. 20, 1862. 

• Daniel Parker, Co. I, 13th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteers, 
Sept. 23, 1862. 

John B. Smith, Co. I, 13th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteers, 
Sept. 20, 1862, Died March 14, 1863. 

Joseph E. O'Donnell, Second Lieutenant, 16th Reg't, New 
Hampshire Volunteer Inf., Co. C, Nov. 4, 1862. Mustered out 
Aug. 20, 1863. 

Henry H. Stevens, Sergeant, Co. C, 16th Reg't, New Hampshire 
Volunteer Inf., Oct. 18, 1862. Mustered out Aug. 20, 1863. 

John E. Stearns, Sergeant, Co. C, 16th Reg't, New Hampshire 
Volunteer Inf., Oct. 18, 1862. Mustered out Aug. 20, 1863. 

Harrison Livingston, Corporal, Co. C, 16th Reg't, New Hamp- 
shire Volunteer Inf., Oct. 18, 1862. Mustered out Aug. 20, 1863. 

James Davis, Co. C, 16th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Inf., Oct. 18, 1862. Died Aug. 10, 1863. 

George L. Adams, Co. C, 16th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Inf., Oct. 18, 1862. Died Aug. 19, 1863. 

Chauncey A. Adams, Co. C, 16th Reg't, New Hampshire Vol- 
unteer Inf.', Oct. 18, 1862. Mustered out Aug. 20, 1863. 

Nathan Adams, Co. C, 16th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Inf., Oct. 27, 1862. Mustered out Aug. 20, 1863. 

Albert A. Austin, Co. C, 16th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Inf., Oct. 18, 1862. Died Aug. 1, 1863. 

Charles P. Baldwin, Co. C, 16th Reg't, New Hampshire Volun- 
teer Inf., Oct. 18, 1862. Died June 1, 1863. 

Sydney A. Barrett, Co. C, 16th Reg't, New Hampshire Volun- 
teer Inf., Oct. 18, 1862. Discharged "Dec. 16, 1862. 

George L. Crighton, Co. C, 16th Reg't, New Hampshire Volun- 
teer Inf., Oct. 18, 1862. Discharged for disability. 

Charles P. Gorham, Co. C, 16th Reg't, New Hampshire Volun- 
teer Inf., Oct. 18, 1862. Mustered out Aug. 20, 1863. 

Thomas Jackson, Co. C, 16th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Inf., Oct. 18, 1862. Mustered out Aug. 20, 1863. 

Marshall Kimball, Co. C, 16th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Inf., Oct. 18, 1862. Mustered out Aug. 20, 1863. 

Benjamin G. Livingston, Co. C, 16th Reg't, New Hampshire 
Volunteer Inf., Oct. 18, 1862. Mustered out Aug. 20, 1863. 

David Robbins, Co. C, 16th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Inf., Oct. 18, 1862. Mustered out Aug. 20, 1863. 

Samuel S. Reed, Co. C. 16th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Inf., Oct. 18, 1862. Discharged Dec. 15, 1862. 

Granville Robbins, Co. C, 16th Reg't, New Hampshire Volun- 
teer Inf., Nov. 19, 1862. Died of disease March 20, 1863. 

.Nathaniel Smith, Co. C, 16th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Inf., Oct. 18, 1862. Died May 12, 1863. 



NAMES OF SOLDIERS. 109 

Lyman Sanders, Co. C, 16th Reg't, New Hampshire Vohmteer 
Inf., Oct. 18, 1862. Died March 21, 1863. 

Samuel H. Wheeler, Co. C, 16th Reg't, New Hampshire Volun- 
teer Inf., Oct. 28, 1862. Mustered out Aug. 20, 1863. 

Thomas B. Russell, Co. E, 16th Reg't, New Hampshire Volun- 
teer Inf., Nov. 13, 1^62. Mustered out Aug. 20, 1863. 

Thomas R. Clement, Assistant Surgeon, 10th Reg't, New Hamp- 
shire Volunteer Inf., Oct. 26, 1863. Honorably discharged Sept. 
17, 1864. 

James S. Manlove, Co. K, 6th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Inf., Oct. 14, 1863. 

William H. Gage, Co. I, 6th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Inf., March 31, 1864. 

Charles H. Thompson, Co. I, 7th Reg't, New Hampshire Volun- 
teer Inf., 7th Reg't, Oct. 15, 1863. 

George Beford, Co. K, 8th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Inf., Sept. 1, 1863. Killed at Bayou De Glasse, La., May 17, 
1864. 

William Hunt, Co. C, 8th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer Inf., 
Sept. 1, 1863. 

Madison Colby, Co. K, 11th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Inf., Dec. 12, 1863. 

Alonzo Carter, Co. D, llth Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Inf., Dec. 12, 1863. Wounded July 27, 1864. 

Francis Bernard, Co. I, 12th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Inf., Dec. 11, 1863. Deserted at Point Lookout, Md., March 10, 
1864. 

John Grant, Co. K, 12th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer Inf., 
Dec, 11, 1863. Transferred to U. S. Navy, April 29, 1864. 
• Thomas Ganigan, Co. K, 12th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Inf., Dec. 11, 1863. 

James M. Howard, Co. C, 12th Reg't, New Hampshire Volun- 
teer Inf., Dec. 10, 1863. 

William Kingsland, Co. I, 12th Reg't, New Hampshire Volun- 
teer Inf., Dec. 10, 1863. 

George Lansing, Co. K, 12th Reg't, New Hampshii-e Volunteer 
Inf., Dec. 11, 1863. 

William Meaney, Co. E, 12th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Inf., Dec. 11, 1863. Wounded May 6, 1864. Deserted near Pe- 
tersburgh, Va., July 10, 1864. 

George Nichols, Co. D, 12th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Inf., Dec. 11, 1863. Transferred to U. S. Navy, April 29, 1864. 

Louis Schafft, Co. C, 12th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Inf., Dec. 12, 1863. Wounded June 3, 1864. 

Jolm Tupper, Co. E, 12th Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer Inf., 
Dec. 10, 1863. 

James Abbott, Troop G, 1st Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Cav., April 5, 1864. Missing Nov. 12, 1864. 



110 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Charles S. Cheeney, Troop G, 1st Reg't, New Hampshire Vol- 
unteer Cav., March 31, 1864. 

Louis Curtois, Troop G, 1st Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Cav., March 31, 1864. 

James Dailey, Troop D, 1st Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Cav., June 25, 1864. 

James Eastman, Troop D, 1st Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Cav., April 30, 1864. 

Elton Harrington, Troop M, 1st Reg't, New Hampshire Volun- 
teer Cav., March 22, 1864. 

Joseph Arquette, Troop M, 1st Reg't, New Hampshire Volun- 
teer Cav., March 25, 1864. 

John Marsau, Troop M, 1st Reg't, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Cav., March 25, 1864. 

Henry Goodwin, Co. A, Uth Reg't, April 5, 1864. 

Charles Buries, Co. A, 7th Reg't, Sept. 21, 1864. Deserted at 
Staten Island, N. Y., Nov. 12, 1864. 

John Staw, Co. I, 7th Reg't, Sept. 22, 1864. Deserted to the 
enemy, Oct. 29, 1864. 

Thomas Fletcher, Co. E, 7th Reg't, Sept. 22, 1864. Deserted 
at Staten Island, N. Y., Nov. 7, 1864. 

Edward Prial, Co. A, 9th Reg't, Aug. 25, 1864. Missing at 
Poplar Grove Ch., Va., Sept. 30, 1864. 

Peter Baker, Co. C, 9th Reg't, Aug. 26, 1864. Deserted on 
route to regiment. 

John L. Blance, Co. F, 5th Reg't, Sept. 13, 1864. 

Charles H. Dogherty, Co. B, 5th Reg't, Sept. 17, 1864. 

Thomas Florence, Co. A, 5th Reg't, Aug. 17, 1864. 

Joseph French, Co. A, 5th Reg't, Aug. 19, 1864. 

Daniel Finn, Co. B, 5th Reg't, Sept. 1, 1864. Deserted near 
Petersburg, Va., Oct. 12, 1864. 

Walter Jones, Co. I, 5th Reg't, Sept. 13, 1864. 

Joseph Marshall, Co. F, 5th Reg't, Aug. 18, 1864. 

Edward McGuire, Co. F, 5th Reg't, Aug. 19, 1864. 

Thomas McGuire, Co. F, 5th Reg't, Sept. 2, 1864. 

John Mahoney, Co. F, 5th Reg't, Sept. 3, 1864. 

John Mountain, Co. K, 5th Reg't, Sept. 19, 1-864. 

William H. Rand, Co. E, 5th Reg't, Aug. 25, 1864. 

John Sweeney, Co, F, 5th Reg't, Aug. 31, 1864. 

Sydney A. Barrett, Veteran, Regular Army, Aug. 31, 1864. 

James Gilson, " " Sept. 23, 1864. 

Thomas Dunham, " " Sept. 21, 1864. 

James Smith, " " Sept. 15, 1864. 

Jacob Johnson, " " Sept. 20, 1864. 

Morton Ingalls, enlisted in the Navy, but fell sick and died 
March 10, 1862, before joining his vessel. 



NAMES OF PERSONS DRAFTED. 



Ill 



Names of Persons Drafted from Mason, Sept. 2, 1863, 



Jerome Davis, furuishecl substitute. 

Otis Walters, 

Mortou L. Barrett, 

Horace E. Davis, 

Josepli McGown, 

James Q. Couant, 

Albert Wliittaker, 

Henry P. Adams, 

Marshall H. Nutting, paid commuta- 
tion. 

Edwin B. Hosmer, discharged for 
disability or other causes. 

William S. Merriam, discharged for 
disability, etc. 

Edmund B. Newell, discharged for 
disability, etc. 

Harrison Hutchinson, discharged 
for disability, etc. 

Benj. F. March, discharged for disa- 
bility, etc. 

Calvin Barrett, discharged for dis- 
ability, etc. 



Thomas Ganey, discharged for dis- 
ability, etc. 

Israel D. Balch, discharged for dis- 
ability, etc. 

.Robert L. Cumnock, Jr., discharged 
for disability, etc. 

Nelson L. Barrett, discharged for 
disability, etc. 

Patrick Meloney, discharged for dis- 
ability, etc. 

Barnard Lamb, discharged for dis- 
ability, etc. 

Charles H. Nutting, discharged for 
disability, etc. 

Elliott Merriam, discharged for dis- 
ability, etc. 

Isaiah E. Scripture, discharged for 
disability, etc. 

Erauklin B. Holden, discharged for 
disability, etc., 

James P. Nutting, discharged for 
disability, etc. 



Names of those tvJio furnished Substitutes under the Call 
of July 18, 1864:. 



Principals. 


Substitutes. 


James L. Chamberlain, 


Thomas McGuire. 


Charles P. Richardson, 


Edward McGuire. 


James Tafc, 


John Mahoney. 


Abel E. AJams, 


Thomas Florence. 


Sewall F. Adams, 


Joseph Marshall. 


Euville J. Emery, 


Joseph French. 


Edwin L. Nuttiug, 


John L. Blance. 


Charles E. Kej'^es, 


Jacob Johnson. 


Rufus P. Boynton, 


James Smith. 


James Russell, 


Thomas Fletcher. 


Anson J. Rideout, 


David Finn. 


George W. Scripture, 


Peter Baker. 


Barnard Lamb, 


Charles Barles. 


Joel H. Elliott, 


Thomas Dunham. 


William A. Adams, 


James Gilson. 


Isaiah E. Scripture, 


John Starr. 


John L. Taft, 


John Mountain. 


Amos A. Smith, 


Edward Prial. 


Alvah Lakin, 


John Sweeney. 


George L. Blood, 


Wra. H. Rand. 


Horace K. Hodgeman, 


Charles H. Dogherty. 


Nelson L. Bai'rett, 


Walter Jones. 


Amount paid for substitutes, 


$22,455 00 


Highest amount paid, .$1,225; 


lowest, $900. 


State Bounty, $300 — town dc 


». .$600, 900 00 


Paid by prijicipals. 


140 00 



Total average cost. 



$1,040 00 



119 
^ CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

To three years' men, 1862, ^„ __ 

" nine months' men, 1862, ?f^,550 00 

" conscripts, 1863, ' • 2,200 00 

" " 1864, 2,100. 00 

Substitutes, etc., 1864, ^'J^^O 00 

Services of selectmen and others, 27,327 35 



Received from the government $35,620 50 

' 944 00 

134,676 50 



SUBSCRIPTIONS. 



The Committee of General Arrangements met, and organized by 
making choice of Dr. Thomas H. Marshall, Chairman, Charles P. 
Richardson, Clerk, and Jonathan Russell, Esq., Treasurer, and 
immediately took measures to raise by subsci'iption the sum nec- 
essary to meet the expenses incident to the celebration, June 13, 
1868. 

The following is a list of the names of the subscribers, with the 
sum paid by each : — 

Charles P. Eichardson, 
Jonathan Eussell, 
Thomas H. Marshall, 
L. L. Barrett, 
E. B. Barrett, 
Samuel E. Adams, 
Alden B. Smith, 
James L. Chamberlln, 
George "W. Scripture, 
Wm. G. Lakin, 
Samuel Smith, 
Samuel Ingals, 
T. B. Tarbell, 
Horace K. Hodgman, 
James H. Barrett, 
Charles B. Prescott, 
A. M. Hill, 

E. P. Peabody, 
W. D. Hero, 
John Alius on, 
A. P. Barrett, 
Joseph P. Blood, 
N. H. Shattuck, 

F. L. Peabody, 
Otis Childs, 
Jason Webber, 
E. H. Hildreth, 
E. B. Hosraer, 

G. L. Blood, 
Leonard Morse, 
George L. Morse, 
Solomon A. Davis, 
Sampson Spalding, 
Nelson Blake, 
Gardner B. Gay, 
Henry L. Newell, 
Edwin J. Hodgman, 
Ephraim Hildreth, 
Stilmau Farrar, 
N. L. Barrett, 
M. L. Barrett, 
Thomas Fitzpatrick, 
Wm. Robbins, 

15 



10 00 


True Eobbins, 


1 00 


10 00 


Amos A. Smith, 


1 00 


10 00 


Henry L. Hodgman, 


1 00 


10 00 


Luke Newell, 


1 00 


10 00 


H. E. Amsden, 


1 00 


10 00 


J. Hammond Elliott, 


10 00 


10 00 


Isaac A. Brown, 


3 00 


25 00 


J. S. Spalding, 


5 00 


10 00 


Freeman Elliott, 


5 00 


2 00 


Samuel Tarbell, 


2 00 


5 00 


C. A. Elliott, 


2 00 


2 00 


Veron Eaton, 


6 00 


5 00 


Jason Russell, 


2 00 


2 00 


S. H. Russell, 


1 00 


2 00 


James Eussell, 


2 00 


5 00 


Amos Scripture, 


8 00 


1 00 


M. C. Dodge, 


5 00 


1 00 


John Felt, 


50 


1 00 


F. B. Heald, 


2 00 


1 00 


J. Q. Conaut, 


1 00 


1 00 


E. K. Hardy, 


1 00 


1 00 


Joseph McGown, 


1 00 


1 00 


N. Y. Oliver, 


1 00 


1 00 


C. N. Corey, 


10 00 


2 00 


John Kenney & Co., 


4 00 


2 00 


Asa Webber, 


2 00 


1 00 


Thomas Bennett, 


1 00 


2 00 


Leander Nutting, 


60 


1 00 


A. A. Lovejoy, 


1 00 


2 00 


B. H. Savage, 


60 


1 00 


H. Eaton, 


'60 


1 00 


E. Arthur, 


50 


50 


Jos. B. Pope, 


50 


1 00 


Geoi*ge Hartshorne, 


50 


2 00 


M. H. Hardy, 


1 00 


1 00 


G. M. Farrar, 


1 00 


2 00 


George H. Preston, 


60 


1 00 


Geo. F. Mitchell, 


50 


1 00 


Eben. Eichardson, 


1 00 


1 00 


Joel Ball, 


1 00 


1 00 


Peter Liberty, 


50 


1 00 


G. Simeueau, 


1 00 


1 00 


Patrick Mullen, 


1 00 



114 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



Frederic Mansfield, 


5 00 


Sewall F. Adams, 


3 00 


Abner Holden, 


1 00 


Harrison Livingston, 


50 


Joseph Felix, 


1 00 


Beujaman Livingston, 


1 00 


Lewis Charlon, 


50 


Boyutou Jefts, 


1 00 


Lyman K. Sawtelle, 


1 00 


Beuj. Sawyer, 


1 00 


Charles Wilson, 


1 00 


E. J. Emery, 


50 


Josiah Sawtell, 


1 00 


Nathan Adams, 


6 00 


Mitchell Bobilee, 


50 


C. A. Adams, 


1 00 


Wm. Cray, 


1 00 


M. Kimball, 


5 00 


Henry G. Amsden, 


60 


J. B. Wilson, 


5 00 


Charles A. Deuiver, 


50 


E. B. Richardson, 


1 00 


James McGown, 


1 00 


D. H. Cochran, 


1 00 


Charles Baldwin, 


50 


Calvin Barrett, 


1 00 


Nicholas Cray, 


50 


John Campbell, 


1 00 


E. G. Heald, 


1 00 


Wm. Webber, 


1 00 


C. B. Shelden, 


1 00 


Jerome Davis, 


1 00 


John Martin, 


1 00 


John Taylor, 


1 00 


Oliver Felix, 


1 00 


J. K. Mills, 


1 00 


Mrs. J. Sheriden, 


50 


Joel Nutting, 


2 00 


Richard Bobilee, 


1 00 


Albert Whitaker, 


1 Oo 


Genery Avery, 


1 00 


Levi W. Mitchell, 


2 00 


Wm. St. Germane, 


1 00 


Samuel N. Barrett, 


2 00 


John Centere, Sr., 


50 


Daniel Goodwin, 


2 Oo 


Mary Bans, 


50 


W. W. Whitaker, 


2 00 


Ann Ball, 


60 


Simon T. Smith, 


1 00 


H.J.Whitney, 


3 00 


George Whitaker, 


2 00 


Peter Luce, 


50 


Luke Newell, 


60 


Alexander Sherbro, 


50 


S. H. Wheeler, 


1 00 


Antony Bobilee, 


50 


Joseph Saunders, 


1 00 


Abraham James, 


1 00 


John K. Lynch, 


1 00 


Otis Pratt, 


1 00 


Amos Robbins, 


2 00 


W. W. Sanderson, 


1 00 


A. Henry, 


2 00 


Lnther Austin, 


1 00 


Franklin Merriam, 


2 00 


Calvin Searle, 


1 00 


W. R. Collins, 


1 00 


Jason Merrill, 


1 00 


C. W. Russell, 


1 00 


Caleb Bullard, 


50 


Warner Russell, 


1 00 


Edwin Nutting, 


50 


Chax'les Jenkins, 


2 00 


D. P. Stowell, 
Michall Cavenaugh, 


50 
50 






Total amount 


$844 50 


J. H. Hartshorn, 


3 00 







The Treasurer's account rendered and allowed is as follows : — 

Jonathan Russell to the Contennial Celebration Committee Dr. 

To amount of subscriptions, $344 50 

" 837 tickets for dinner, 837 50 

$1,181 60 

Cr. 

By paid Geo. Hobart, for music, $75 00 

" Asher Peabody, for horse-keeping, 3 00 

" 20 dinner tickets furnished the Band, 20 00 

" 17 free tickets, 17 00 

" 123 tickets remaining unsold, 123 00 

" for lumber for seats, 2 50 

" Moore & Berry, for printing, 22 50 

" G. W. Scripture, for dinner, 700 00 

" for powder, 10 40 



SUBSCRIPTIONS. 115 

By paid T. H. Marshall, Express postage, 3 07 

T. H. Marshall amount voted by Committee, 4 00 

C. P. Richardson " " " " 3 00 

Luther L. Barrett, " " " " 2 00 

Abram Wriijht, " " " " 1 00 

Elisha B. Barrett, «' " " " 5 00 

Aldeu B. Smith, " " " " 4 00 

Jona Russell, 2d, " " '♦ " |6 00 
Thomas B. Tarbell, for procuring flags and getting lumber 

to the grove, 10 70 

Chas. B. Prescott, " ticket office sign, 1 00 

Uncollected subscription, 5 00 

$1,018 17 
Amount of Debits, $1,18150 

" ' Credits, 1,018 17 

Amount due Committee, $163 33 

By vote of the Committee, the above balance is to be applied towards 
paying the expenses of publishing the proceedings of the Centennial Cele- 
bration. 



Note. — I have for sale a few copies of the " History of Mason." 

Tliose who make an early application therefor can be supplied at 

$1 50, or if sent by mail postpaid at $1 75 per copy. Also a few 

copies of the "Memoir of the Rev. Ebenezer Hill,"in which will be 

found his two published lectures, on the early history of the tovra, 

and two of his sermons. Price 25 cents, for which it will be sent 

post-paid by mail. 

J. B. Hill. 

Mason, Feb. 21, 1870. 



PROCEEDINGS 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 



#114 Sun^vijdtli ginniu^rsarii 



INCORPORATION 



TO^YN OF maso:n, :n. h. 

AUOUST 36, 1808. 



PUEPARKD FOR PUBLICATION, UNDER THE DIRPXTION OF THE 
COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS, 

By JOHN B. HILL. 



BOSTON: 
ELLIOTT, TH[OM:e;S & TALBOT, 

1870. 



!Dl 



(1- 



